KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell over 1 per cent on Friday, recording a fifth session of declines in six, tracking weakness in soyoil on the US Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.1pc at 2,253 ringgit ($551.80) a tonne at the close of trade, its sharpest daily decline in a week. The contract also lost 1.6pc this week in its second straight weekly decline. Trading volumes stood at 32,706 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening.

“Palm oil fell tracking CBOT soyoil, which slumped overnight,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader. Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyoil rates, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market. Exports in the first half of February likely rose from a month earlier, but the demand may not be sustained throughout the month, the trader said. “Seasonally, exports in February should be lower... but we could also see some (demand) spillover from January.”

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2019