Malaysian palm oil futures edged higher on Friday after two straight sessions of declines, tracking overnight gains in overseas markets and on cargo surveyor data showing strong exports. The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.7 percent at 2,741 ringgit ($648.91) a tonne at the end of Friday, after declining 0.7 percent on Thursday.
The contract has shed about 0.3 percent so far this week after two straight weeks of gains. Traded volumes stood at 38,078 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of Friday. The December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gained 0.5 percent. The January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained 0.2 percent, while the January palm olein contract rose 0.9 percent.
Palm prices are impacted by movements of related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. "Palm also rose because of stronger exports," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader. Exports of palm oil products during Oct. 1-20 rose 11.6 percent to 951,339 tonnes from 852,206 tonnes shipped a month earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Friday.
Another futures trader said: "Crude oil extending loses and talks of sharper growth in October production could have encouraged weekend profit-taking whilst higher exports pared some losses." Palm production in October is seen rising on-month due to the higher number of working holidays. Meanwhile, palm may gain more to 2,742 ringgit per tonne, Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao said, basing his analysis on the uptrend from the Oct. 3 low of 2,656 ringgit to the Oct. 17 high of 2,769 ringgit.
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