Pakistan's palm oil rates were firm on the back of high domestic demand and dealers said on Wednesday they were in no hurry to place new import orders when international oil prices were on the high side.
They added that trade was likely to remain slow in the days ahead as most players were overbought.
But a slowdown in imports would not affect stocks in the local market, which were sufficient to cover the traditional peak season during the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan.
"There are ample stocks available in the country," said Ziaul Haq, a dealer at Saulat Enterprises. "Aggressive buying will start by the second week of November."
Local traders had around 140,000 tonnes of unsold stocks to meet domestic demand in Ramazan and the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr.
Ramazan is a period of high consumption of edible oils in Pakistan, when people eat fried foods after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast.
Haq said a few traders may book cargoes for December shipment following rising palm oil prices in Malaysia.
"High Malaysian prices could force some traders to make forward deals," he added.
Malaysian benchmark third-month January crude palm oil futures on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed 29 ringgit up at 1,403 ringgit ($369.21) a tonne on Wednesday. Its peak for the day was 1,406 ringgit.
Pakistan imports about 800,000 tonnes of oilseeds and about 1.3 million tonnes of edible oil products annually, led by palm oil and palm olein.
The country's annual domestic demand is 1.9 million tonnes.
Palm olein prices in the local market were quoted at 1,675 rupees per maund, compared with 1,665 rupees last week.
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