KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures notched up a second day of gains on Wednesday, climbing to a five-week high, buoyed by firm soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and expectations of lean production growth in October.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.7 per cent at 2,260 ringgit ($544.71) a tonne at the end of the trading day. It earlier rose to an intra-day high of 2,265 ringgit, its highest level since September 7. Trading volumes stood at 40,192 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade.

“Soyoil prices are supportive along with the outlook that production gains are reducing,” said a palm futures trader based in Singapore.

Palm oil output in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer, typically peaks in the third or fourth quarter of the year before tapering off over the year-end. Production levels rose 14.4pc in September at 1.85 million tonnes, according to data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

The output was its strongest in 10 months and its highest September levels since 2015. In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil contract rose as much as 0.4pc, while the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped up to 0.2pc.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018