KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures hit a one-week high in trade on Wednesday, bouncing back from a more than one-and-a-half-year low earlier this week, supported by overnight gains in soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.1 per cent at 2,440 ringgit ($625.00) a tonne at the close of trade, charting a third consecutive session of gains. Earlier in the session it climbed to its highest level since March 7 at 2,442 ringgit. Palm had fallen to its lowest level since August 2016 at 2,350 ringgit a tonne on Monday. Trading volumes stood at 70,116 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening.

The Chicago Board of Trade’s May soybean oil contract gained 1.5pc on Tuesday and was slightly down 0.03pc on Wednesday. The May soybean oil on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.4pc and the Dalian May palm oil contract climbed 0.5pc.

Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete in the global vegetable oils market. Palm oil may bounce into a range of 2,435-2,449 ringgit per tonne, according to Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2018