KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures slumped as much as 3 per cent on Tuesday evening to their lowest in two years, tracking weakness in related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.9pc at 2,263 ringgit ($565.47) per tonne at the close of trade, its sharpest daily drop since early March. It earlier fell to its lowest since July 15, 2016 at 2,238 ringgit. Trading volumes stood at 80,962 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.

“Palm market is down today tracking externals,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The Chicago July soybean oil contract fell 2.3pc, in line with soybeans, in response to the prospect of a deepening trade war between Washington and Beijing.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018