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Benchmark contract rises, but traders remain wary
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Upswing in palm oil and product exports in Malaysia,
Indonesia
(Updates with closing prices)
SINGAPORE, March 27 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil
futures closed higher on Monday, after falling for the last
seven consecutive trading days, but weaker rival soyoil capped
gains.
The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery
on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended up 65 ringgit,
or 1.9%, to 3,577 ringgit ($809.46) a tonne.
Palm oil attempted to recover some of the massive losses
from last week, but there was little momentum to sustain the
prices, said Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm
Oil Analytics.
"Sentiments are still bogged down by weakness in related
vegetable oils," he said.
Maybank Investment Banking Group reported that crude
palm oil futures are in backwardation, as prices are expected to
fall ahead of mid-year seasonal output recovery.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for March 1-25 rose between 11.4% and 19.8% from a month earlier, cargo surveyors said on Saturday. Indonesia shipped 2.95 million tonnes of palm oil in January, up 35.2% from a year earlier, the Indonesian palm oil association said in a statement. Crude palm oil output at the world's biggest producer stood at 3.89 million tonnes in January, while inventories fell 3.56% from the month before to 3.09 million tonnes. Dalian's most-active soyoil contract rose 1.2%, while its palm oil contract climbed 2.0%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 0.1%. Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. Oil prices rose on Monday as investors assessed efforts by authorities to ease concerns over the global banking system, while Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus ratcheted up tensions in Europe. Higher crude oil prices make palm a more attractive option for biodiesel feedstock. ($1 = 4.4190 ringgit) (Reporting by Carman Chew; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
* To view freight rates from Peninsula Malaysia/Sumatra to China, India, Pakistan and Rotterdam, please key in and press enter, or double click between the brackets.
* Reuters Terminal users can see cash and futures edible oil prices by double clicking on the codes in the brackets: To go to the next page in the same chain, hit F12. To go back, hit F11. Vegetable oils Malaysian palm oil exports CBOT soyoil futures CBOT soybean futures Indian solvent Dalian Commodity Exchange Dalian soyoil futures Dalian refined palm oil futures Zhengzhou rapeseed oil European edible oil prices/trades ))
