KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell as much as 2 per cent in Tuesday evening trade, touching their lowest in more than two weeks, as a stronger ringgit and concerns over a European Union vote to curb palm oil imports dented sentiment.

A stronger ringgit, palm’s currency of trade, typically makes the edible oil more expensive for foreign buyers and curbs demand. The ringgit climbed to 3.9470, its highest in about 18 months on Tuesday morning before closing flat. The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.5pc at 2,518 ringgit ($636.82) a tonne at the close.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2018