KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures touched a more than 2-year high on Friday and overtook soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade for the first time in almost nine years as speculation grew that production in November fell more than first thought.

A Reuters poll on Thursday forecast Malaysian palm oil production would show a 10 per cent monthly fall in November, but three traders on Friday said they now expected it to fall as much as 13pc .

Lower than expected production pushed the benchmark palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange up for a fourth straight session, up 1.4pc to 2,855 ringgit ($684.65) per tonne.

The last time prices were this high was on September 15, 2017.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2019