Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended lower on Wednesday as nervous investors booked profits after an upbeat demand outlook and stronger crude oil prices helped the edible oil scale eight-month highs earlier in the session. Benchmark May palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange eased 0.6 percent to close at 3,250 ringgit ($1,075) per tonne. Prices had earlier hit a high of 3,294 ringgit, the highest since June 9 last year.
Traded volumes stood at 23,723 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly lower than the usual 25,000 lots. Prices, which are up 2.4 percent so far this year, eventually eased as the long-term risk of a messy default in Europe cast doubts on the health of the global economy and commodity demand.
"The market is at a crossroad between bullish fundamentals and bearish technicals," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Malaysia. Reuters analyst Wang Tao said a price of 3,292 ringgit per tonne remains intact for palm oil, as it is still firm on an uptrend.
Malaysian palm oil exports from February 1 to 20 eased 2 percent and 0.6 percent from a month ago, according to cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance respectively. That indicated an improvement in demand prospects compared to a 14 percent decline for the first 15 days of the month.
Top producer Indonesia will export more palm oil to Pakistan, with volumes expected to more than quadruple to 800,000 tonnes over the next three years, said an executive at an Indonesian industry group. The US soyoil contract for March delivery lost 0.6 percent while the most active September 2012 soyoil contract on China's Dalian Commodity exchange inched up 0.1 percent.
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