VEGOILS-Palm oil inches down on poor demand, exports

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Updates with midday prices, adds quotes in third and fourth paragraph) By Mei Mei Chu KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures ticked down on Wednesday, surrendering gains clocked in the previous session, as sluggish export shipments and poor demand weighed on prices. The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 19 ringgit, or 0.56%, to 3,402 ringgit ($763.29) a tonne by the midday break. The contract rose 2.5% in the previous session.


Palm is facing pressure from external markets and tracking losses in rival soyoil, said Mitesh Saiya, trading manager at Mumbai-based trading firm Kantilal Laxmichand & Co.


In top buyer India, demand is still not picking up as prices of rival oils, including local oils such as rice bran oil, are competitive compared with palm, he added. Malaysia's palm oil exports for April were down 18% from the previous month, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday. Another cargo surveyor, AmSpec Agri Malaysia, recorded a 21% decline in shipments. Unattractive palm prices versus rival vegetable oils and well-stocked destination markets have curtailed buying appetite for palm oil, Refinitiv Agriculture Research said in a note late Tuesday. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 0.2%. The Dalian exchange was closed for a public holiday.


Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
($1 = 4.4570 ringgit) (Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran and Sohini Goswami)


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