LONDON: Malaysian palm oil futures fell for a fifth consecutive day on Friday evening, hitting a fresh five-month low as the market was weighed down by concerns over high stockpiles in the country. The benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.9 per cent to 2,479 ringgit a tonne at the close of trade.

It earlier fell to an intraday low of 2,477 ringgit, its weakest level since July 4. The contract is also down 4.8pc for the week, its sixth weekly fall and sharpest weekly decline since February. Trading volumes at the break stood at 39,815 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening. “The market is concerned about high stocks, and I heard all the storage tanks are full,” said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur, adding that despite some buying activity in the market prices remained low on bearish outlooks.

Palm oil inventory levels in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer after Indonesia, are expected to rise towards the year-end as export volumes fall faster than output, weighing on prices.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017