Palm maintains gains, tracking strength in soyoil

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures on Thursday held on to the previous day's gains, borrowing support from soyoil prices and stronger exports in October, as traders awaited cues from an industry conference.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.11 percent at 2,840 ringgit ($672.03) a tonne at the midday break. It gained 0.8 percent on Wednesday.

Traded volumes stood at 10,375 lots of 25 tonnes each at the break on Thursday.

"Palm is up on higher soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader.

The December soybean oil contract on the CBOT rose 0.5 percent on Thursday.

In other related edible oils, the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange also rose 0.4 percent, while the January palm olein contract was down 0.1 percent.

Prices of palm oil are impacted by movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Most players are waiting for industry forecasts from the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference scheduled to be held in Bali on Nov. 2-3, said the Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

Top industry analysts James Fry, Thomas Mielke and Dorab Mistry are scheduled to speak at the conference and provide their price outlook.

"The market is expecting speakers to be positive on crude palm oil prices," the trader said.

Another trader said palm was up following a month of strong exports.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil for October rose 2.3 percent to 1,416,664 tonnes from the previous month, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Tuesday.

Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, said on Tuesday exports of Malaysian palm oil rose 2.5 percent in October to 1,406,706 tonnes.

Palm may test a resistance at 2,860 ringgit per tonne, a break above which could lead to a gain into the range of 2,880-2,900 ringgit.