Vegoils Palm oil gains on improved exports, weaker ringgit

by **Cals** Tue 12 Jan 2016, 00:36

Vegoils

[size=28]Palm oil gains on improved exports, weaker ringgit

By Reuters / Reuters | January 11, 2016 : 2:45 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11): Malaysian palm oil futures gained on Monday after cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said exports in the first ten days of January rose and as the ringgit, the currency palm oil is traded in, weakened against the dollar in early trade.

ITS reported a 15.2% rise in exports of Malaysian palm oil products for the first ten days this month, compared with the same period in December.

The palm oil contract for March on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.25% to RM2,441 (US$554.77) per tonne at the midday break, gaining from a three-week low of RM2,405 hit last Thursday.

Traded volume stood at 11,022 lots of 25 tonnes each.

"Export numbers were good, it's keeping well and I expect it to continue to be good," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

"The other (reason) is ringgit has weakened; ringgit has more or less impact on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives as it (palm) is ringgit denominated."

The Malaysian currency weakened 0.6% against the dollar in early trade on Monday, reaching 4.3970 per dollar at noon.

A weaker ringgit makes the tropical oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies and lends support to prices.

Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which was released after the market paused for the midday break, showed a 1.1% fall in December exports compared with a Reuters poll forecast of 6.6%.

"The market in the afternoon should improve, it could be heading towards RM2,500," the trader said, referring to the better-than-expected export data from the government body.

Inventories and production also fell in December, dropping by 9.5% and 15.4%, respectively.

Palm oil is biased to retest a support at RM2,416 per tonne, with a good chance of breaking below this level and falling more towards the next support at RM2,394, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities.

The US March soyoil contract gained 0.4%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchangewas down 0.9%.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0506 GMT

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Contract	Month	Last	Change	Low	High	Volume
MY PALM OIL	JAN6	0	+0.00	0	0	0
MY PALM OIL	FEB6	2365	+11.00	2339	2365	358
MY PALM OIL	MAR6	2441	+6.00	2417	2444	6752
CHINA PALM OLEIN	MAY6	4696	-44.00	4662	4750	957678
CHINA SOYOIL	MAY6	5590	-48.00	5566	5642	468884
CBOT SOY OIL	MAR6	29.75	+3.90	29.58	29.78	2638
INDIA PALM OIL	JAN6	415.30	+3.90	410.60	415.90	252
INDIA SOYOIL	JAN6	605.00	+1.70	602.00	605.70	1260
NYMEX CRUDE	FEB6	32.46	-0.70	32.33	32.94	21130

[size]

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in US 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 US dollars per barrel

(US$1 = RM4.4000)
(US$1 = 66.8000 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.5817 Chinese yuan)
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