KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures ended the trading day in negative territory, pressured by expected slower demand, but remained up on the week. The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.6 per cent at 1,972 ringgit ($479.57) by the close, with the weekly gain standing at 1.4pc.

“The market was weighed by expectations of weaker exports,” said one Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to Malaysian palm oil export data from cargo surveyors for July 1-20. Data from AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Intertek Testing Services is scheduled for release on July 20.

The most recently reported data from the cargo surveyors gave export growth estimates for the first half of July ranging from 0.4pc to 11.6pc month on month. In related oils US soy oil CBOT futures were last up 0.3pc, while the September soy oil contract on the Dalian exchange fell 0.2pc.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2019