Vegoils Palm prices end lower, as traders wait for US debt deal

by **Cals** Sun 13 Oct 2013, 21:21

Vegoils Palm prices end lower, as traders wait for US debt deal

Business & Markets 2013

Written by Reuters

Friday, 11 October 2013 18:35

(11/10/13 18:31:07)
* Prices post weekly gain of 3 pct, highest in 8 wks
* Malaysia's Oct 1-10 palm oil exports rise 22.5 pct -SGS

JAKARTA (Oct 11): Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Friday due to profit-taking, after five days of gains, with trading seen range-bound as the focus shifts to U.S. lawmakers who are struggling to reach a deal, to avert a possible sovereign default next week.

The benchmark December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 0.46 percent at 2,380 Malaysian ringgit ($750) per tonne.

Total traded volume stood at 32,330 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 12,500 lots.

"It is purely profit-taking after four days of being up," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage, adding that the debt standoff in the United States was holding traders back, ahead of the weekend.

Republican lawmakers, who have not passed budget funding, on Thursday offered a plan that would extend the U.S. government's borrowing authority for several weeks, staving off a default that could come as soon as Oct 17.

Palm prices gained 3 percent this week — the highest weekly gain since mid-August.

"It has been a very good week," the trader added. "A lot of people are bearish in the market, but the MPOB report was a big surprise ... everybody was looking for about 1.9 million tonnes.

Malaysia's palm oil stocks in September, edged up to 1.78 million tonnes — a smaller-than-expected rise, as output of the tropical oil grew slower than anticipated, and exports remained healthy, data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed on Thursday.

In other data, exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Oct 1-10, rose 22.5 percent to 550,877 tonnes, from 449,821 tonnes shipped during Sept 1-10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said.

Palm oil exports from Indonesia — the world's top producer — rose 4 percent to 1.455 million tonnes in August, according to Bank Indonesia data on Thursday.

"The lower prices are because of the ringgit's strength," said a Jakarta-based palm trader. "This week, our palm oil production data did not increase as much as what people expected, and exports remain good."

Asian currencies broadly rose as risk sentiment improved, on growing hopes for a deal in Washington to end a fiscal standoff and possibly avoid a U.S. default.

Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil is due for a fall to 2,349 ringgit per tonne, as a short-term uptrend is peaking, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.

In other markets, global oil prices dipped as supply worries eased, but optimism over talks to end the U.S. government shutdown, kept losses in check.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December, fell 1.1 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange, was little changed.

Contract	Month	Last	Change	Low	High	Volume
MY PALM OIL	OCT3	2385	-5.00	2380	2390	164
MY PALM OIL	NOV3	2378	-11.00	2372	2391	1171
MY PALM OIL	DEC3	2380	-11.00	2373	2395	16926
CHINA PALM OLEIN	JAN4	5620	+36.00	5592	5664	324218
CHINA SOYOIL	JAN4	7064	-14.00	7054	7128	526056
CBOT SOY OIL	DEC3	40.75	-0.47	40.58	41.23	11786
NYMEX CRUDE	NOV3	101.77	-1.24	101.55	102.95	25941

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1019 GMT
Palm 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
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel                                                                                                                                                                ($1 = 3.1915 Malaysian ringgit)