KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell 1 per cent on Friday, ending four straight days of gains on forecasts for rising production in March.

“Production figures are likely to be higher this month,” said a Kuala Lumpur based trader, as March has more working days than February and output then tends to rise in line with seasonal trends. The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Der­ivatives Exchange was down 1pc at 2,416 ringgit ($618.38) a tonne at the end of the trading day. Trading volumes stood at 43,915 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening. The contract had earlier hit its highest since March 7, supported by a weaker ringgit and strength in related edible oils. Weakness in the ringgit, palm oil’s currency of trade, typically lends support to the edible oil by making it cheaper for holders of foreign currencies.

Palm had hit a more than one-and-a-half-year low on Monday, and has gained 1.7pc this week.

In other related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade’s May soybean oil contract was last down 0.7pc, while the May soybean oil on China’s Dalian Commodity Exch­ange slipped 0.1pc.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018