KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell to their lowest in nearly three years on Friday evening in a fourth session of losses, tracking declines in related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malay­sia Derivatives Exc­hange was down 1.8 per cent at 2,147 ringgit ($530.12) a tonne at the close of trade. It earlier fell to an intraday low of 2,144 ringgit, the lowest since Sept. 21, 2015. It is down 5.3pc this week, as sentiment was largely bearish due to weak demand and jitters over the Sino-US trade spat. Trading volumes stood at 52,928 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.

“Weakness in CBOT soybean oil and Dalian olein pri­ces are pressuring palm,” said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur, referring to US soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and palm olein prices on China’s Dalian Commodity Exch­ange.

The market was waiting for fresh triggers, another trader added. Palm oil prices are usually impacted by the performance of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. The Chicago December soybean oil contract fell 1.1pc, while the September soybean oil contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped to 0.6pc. Meanwhile, the Dalian September palm oil contract eased 0.7pc.

Palm oil is expected to break a support at 2,187 ringgit per tonne and fall more to 2,148 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018