KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell by their most in eight months on Tuesday after the country’s prime minister defended his criticism of India even as it halted palm oil imports from the world’s second-largest producer following a diplomatic spat.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed down 87 ringgit, or 2.8 per cent, at 3,005 ringgit, logging its second straight day of losses.

That was palm oil’s largest one-day fall since May 2, 2019. India, the world’s biggest buyer of edible oils, last week restricted imports of refined palm oil and informally instructed traders to stay away from Malaysian palm oil.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2020