KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures closed slightly down on Monday as a stronger ringgit weighed on the last trading day of 2018, charting a second consecutive year of declines as high inventories and weak demand pushed down prices.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed 0.1 per cent lower at 2,119 ringgit ($513.08) a tonne, snapping two earlier sessions of gains, and was down 15.3pc for the year.

The market had earlier climbed as much as 0.9pc to a one-week high of 2,140 ringgit, but later pared some gains on a stronger ringgit and profit-taking, traders said. Trading volumes stood at 15,659 lots of 25 tonnes each on Monday evening.

“Further appreciation in the local currency and profit-taking interest capped upside movements,” a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.

Gains in the ringgit, palm’s traded currency, usually make the edible oil more expensive for foreign buyers.

The ringgit had strengthened by 0.5pc to its strongest levels in three months, and was last at 4.1300 per dollar on Monday evening.

Palm oil prices are impacted by changes in soyoil prices, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2019