Vegoils Palm hits 3-month low tracking declines in external markets

by **Cals** Tue 28 Jul 2015, 23:08

Vegoils
Palm hits 3-month low tracking declines in external markets

JAKARTA (July 28): Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Tuesday for a fifth straight session to their lowest in three months, reflecting weakness in competing markets and declines in commodities globally, although a weak ringgit provided some support.
By the close, benchmark palm oil for October on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had slipped 0.47 percent to 2,130 ringgit ($558.62) a tonne. Earlier in the session the contract hit 2,115 ringgit, its lowest since April 30.
Total traded volume stood at 37,341 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the roughly 35,000 lots usually traded daily.
"We're taking the lead from the Dalian market," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur, referring to recent declines in soybean oil futures in China's Dalian Commodities Exchange.
Despite the external pressure on the Asian palm benchmark, a weak ringgit was offering some support, a second trader said.
A weaker ringgit makes Malaysian palm oil less expensive to overseas buyers holding other currencies.
"The ringgit is at a 17-year low. That's always a good thing," the trader said.
For the past three weeks, authorities in Malaysia, the world's number two palm oil producer, have allowed the ringgit to trade below levels that in 1998 prompted them to impose a dollar peg and capital controls.
Meanwhile, the top producer of palm oil Indonesia expects to face moderate El Nino weather conditions from July to November, affecting provinces from Sumatra to eastern Indonesia, the country's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Tuesday.
Separately, Indonesia, has issued regulations that change the way export taxes are calculated for crude palm oil and other palm products, with amounts due now expressed in dollars rather than a percentage of the price.
In competing markets, oil prices fell for a fifth straight session on Tuesday to their lowest in almost six months, as a rout in Chinese equities cast further doubt on the outlook for crude demand in the world's top commodities consumer.
The U.S. soyoil contract for August gained 0.43 percent in afternoon Asian trade, while the most active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.94 percent, and Dalian RBD palm oil for September delivery was down 0.72 percent.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1010 GMT

Contract	Month	Last	Change	Low	High	Volume
MY PALM OIL	AUG5	2139	-6.00	2125	2155	465
MY PALM OIL	SEP5	2135	-8.00	2120	2150	3938
MY PALM OIL	OCT5	2130	-10.00	2115	2148	16401
CHINA PALM OLEIN	JAN6	4746	-56.00	4688	4780	578156
CHINA SOYOIL	JAN6	5474	-52.00	5420	5498	523390
CBOT SOY OIL	DEC5	30.59	-1.00	30.43	30.74	8190
INDIA PALM OIL	JUL5	423.10	-1.00	422.30	425.60	279
INDIA SOYOIL	AUG5	567.30	+2.10	565.50	568.70	23725
NYMEX CRUDE	SEP5	47.06	-0.33	46.68	47.32	33653

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 = 3.8130 ringgit)
($1 = 63.9400 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.2084 Chinese yuan)