Malaysian palm oil futures recovered earlier losses to briefly hit a near one-month high on Tuesday, before ending the session little changed as crude prices eased and traders positioned themselves ahead of key export data. By the close, the benchmark September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.1 percent at 2,484 ringgit ($770) per tonne. Earlier, prices touched a low of 2,464 ringgit before hitting a near one-month high of 2,492 ringgit.
"The market is waiting for tomorrow's export figure," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader with a foreign commodities brokerage. "Today we are trading in a range and awaiting new news." Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance will release Malaysia's June 1-25 palm oil export data on June 25.
Benchmark palm prices eased late last week, weighed down by poor export data despite expectations of an uptick in demand due to the start of Ramadan, which typically drives up consumption of the vegetable oil. "There is a slowdown from buying on the Chinese side because of tomorrow's export figure," the trader added. "Tomorrow's export figures may not be as bearish as the earlier (last week) figure."
Total traded volume stood at 31,076 lots of 25 tonnes, less than the average 35,000 lots. In competing vegetable oil markets, the US soyoil contract was 0.3 percent lower in late Asian trade, while the most active soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange added 0.9 percent.
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