KUALA LUMPUR, June 2: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended down on Thursday, extending their weakness of the previous day, after a drop in rival soyaoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade. We’re just following the CBOT now, there’s no other guide, said a dealer.

Soya and palm compete for export destinations and their prices often move in step. In Thursday’s e-CBOT trade, July soyaoil fell as much as 0.20 cent per lb in a setback to Wednesday’s rebound. Talk that few shipments of palm oil were booked for the second half of June, compared with voluminous loadings in the same period of last month, also depressed the market.

At the close, the benchmark third-month crude palm oil on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, August, closed 3 ringgit down at 1,390 ringgit ($365.79) a ton. It had fallen as much as 8 ringgit, or half per cent, in the morning. Other traded months ended down 1 to 3 ringgit.—Reuters