Malaysian palm oil futures climbed to their highest in more than two months on Friday, posting a fifth straight weekly gain, as investors placed further bets that stocks of the edible oil in the world's No 2 producer would ease in May. Inventory levels most likely fell from April's 1.93 million tonnes to 1.78 million tonnes in May, the lowest in almost a year, as export demand and local consumption outstripped production, a Reuters survey showed.
Industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) will release official stocks data on Monday, while cargo surveyors' exports data for June 1-10 due on the same day may also show an improvement compared to a month ago. "We are seeing more position taking ahead of the MPOB data. On top of that, we are also seeing more orders coming in from India for Ramazan," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
At market close, the benchmark August contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.9 percent at 2,457 ($795) ringgit per tonne, below its intraday high at 2,471 ringgit, its loftiest since March 27. Total traded volumes stood at 42,434 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the average 35,000 lots.
Technicals showed palm oil is expected to peak around 2,457 ringgit per tonne, as indicated by its wave pattern, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said. For the week, palm oil gained 2.5 percent on hopes of lower stocks and higher restocking demand from India and Pakistan. In vegetable oil markets, US soyaoil for July climbed 0.6 percent in late Asian trade. The most-active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange gained 1.3 percent.
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