Vegoils Palm oil rises as Malaysian ringgit trades at weakest since 1998

by **Cals** Fri 14 Aug 2015, 18:48

Vegoils
Palm oil rises as Malaysian ringgit trades at weakest since 1998

JAKARTA (Aug 14): Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a second day on Friday, tracking overnight trading of comparative oils higher, as a falling ringgit offered some support to the commodity.
The benchmark palm oil contract for October on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.9 percent to 2,033 ringgit ($501.73) a tonne by the midday break. It climbed to as much as 2,042 ringgit a tonne earlier in the session.
"There was some initial buying on the ringgit weakness," said a trader with a commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian ringgit fell to a fresh 17-year low on Friday, making palm more attractive to overseas buyers as the benchmark is priced in ringgit.
Traded volume stood at 26,914 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the roughly 13,500 lots usually traded by the close of the morning session.
However, weakness in global commodities, expectation of higher domestic production and slow demand are capping increases in palm prices, traders said.
Palm futures have lost 1.4 percent so far this week, on track to post its seventh weekly loss after suffering big losses earlier in the week following devaluation of the Chinese yuan.
"It's going to be tough for prices to remain at lofty levels with higher production and lower demand. The road ahead is slippery," the trader in Kuala Lumpur said.
In Indonesia, the other key exporter, palm and lauric oil export fell 8 percent in July from a month earlier, an industry body said on Thursday.
Palm oil futures may rebound more to 2,052 ringgit on Friday, but can be totally or partially reversed by a subsequent drop, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities.
Among other vegetable oils, the U.S. September soyoil contract was down 0.1 percent in early Asian trade, while the most active soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dipped 1.1 percent.
Crude oil futures remained under pressure, plunging to 6-1/2-year lows after data revealed a big rise in U.S. stockpiles, fuelling fears of a growing global glut.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0515 GMT
Contract       Month    Last   Change     Low High   Volume
MY PALM OIL    AUG5       0   +0.00      0      0      0
MY PALM OIL       SEP5    2012   +10.00 2000    2023 819
MY PALM OIL       OCT5   2033   +19.00 2009    2042    10182
CHINA PALM OLEIN   JAN6    4636    -6.00   4596    4664   628694
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6   5582   -46.00 5552    5622 485716
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5    29.26    +3.00 29.15    29.41     2759
INDIA PALM OIL     AUG5 394.00    +3.00 392.50 395.10      166
INDIA SOYOIL      AUG5   582.80    +3.95 581.60 583.00    2355
NYMEX CRUDE       SEP5    42.02      -0.21   41.35    42.26 12554
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 = 4.0520 ringgit)
($1 = 65.1650 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.4000 Chinese yuan)