JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a more than one-month high on Tuesday, gaining for a fourth straight session, on expectations of higher imports by top edible oils buyer India.
India is expected to import more palm oil this year due to a
domestic deficit in vegetable oil stockpiles, helping offset a
drop in demand for the tropical oil from the biofuel sector,
leading industry analyst James Fry said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Palm and Lauric Oils
Price Outlook Conference & Exhibition (POC) in Kuala Lumpur.
"There's positive talk at the POC providing support to palm
prices today such as Fry's comments about Indian imports," said
a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
Other industry sources, also attending the meet, said
India's edible oil imports are expected to jump to a record high
of 12.5-13 million tonnes this year, including a 1 million tonne
rise in palm arrivals to 9 million tonnes.
The benchmark palm contract on the Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives Exchange reversed earlier losses to touch
an intraday high of 2,382 ringgit ($657) per tonne, its highest
since Jan. 15. Palm closed up 0.2 percent at 2,378 ringgit.
Traded volume stood at 42,827 lots of 25 tonnes each, above
the usual 35,000 lots.
Gains were, however, capped by weakness in competing
vegetable oil markets.
The most active May soybean oil contract on the
Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.35 percent, while the U.S.
soyoil contract for March edged down 0.37 percent.
In other markets, oil prices firmed, tracking stronger
global equity markets and as the U.S. rig count continued to
fall, but analysts warned the market remained oversupplied.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1046 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL MAR5 2395 +8.00 2349 2395 48
MY PALM OIL APR5 2384 +8.00 2333 2387 2859
MY PALM OIL MAY5 2378 +5.00 2328 2382 28277
CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5 5106 -30.00 5070 5220 529290
CHINA SOYOIL MAY5 5662 -54.00 5634 5784 405772
CBOT SOY OIL MAY5 32.72 +4.70 32.67 33.04 6680
INDIA PALM OIL MAR5 464.60 +4.70 455.10 465.70 2043
INDIA SOYOIL APR5 593.70 +0.05 591.40 594.90 20245
NYMEX CRUDE APR5 50.41 +0.82 49.76 50.49 26923
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.6240 ringgit)
($1 = 6.2741 Chinese yuan renminbi)
($1 = 61.9000 Indian rupees)- Reuters
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