KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures recovered from early losses to close only slightly lower on Thursday, aided by improving trends in the broader vegetable oil market.

The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.3 per cent at 1,983 ringgit ($482.13) per tonne at the close of trade. It is up 2pc so far this week. Earlier in the session, the contract fell as much as 0.8pc, tracking weakness in overnight soy oil on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).US soy oil futures on the CBOT dropped 1.1pc on Wednesday, but were up 0.5pc as of 10:50 GMT.

“Palm opened lower on spillover weakness from the sharp drop in rival oilseed overnight,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader.

US soybean futures had hit a nine-day low on Thursday as forecasts for cooler weather across a major growing region calmed fears that hot, dry conditions could hurt yields.

Palm oil may break resistance at 1,984 ringgit per tonne and rise to the next resistance at 2,001 ringgit, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technical’s.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2019