Malaysian palm oil futures fell by more than 1 percent on Friday evening, extending a sharp decline from the previous session to hit their lowest in nearly two weeks, tracking weakness in related edible oils as the ringgit strengthened. The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.2 percent at 2,536 ringgit ($638.79) a tonne at the end of the trading day for a second daily decline.
Earlier in the session, it fell to the weakest since Jan. 2 at 2,525 ringgit. For the week, palm was down 2.2 percent, its first weekly decline in three. Trading volumes stood at 46,226 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade. "Palm is down on soyaoil and Dalian palm olien. It is also technically following through the selling from yesterday's weak closing," one Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.
Palm dropped more than 2 percent the previous day on gains in the ringgit, the tropical oil's currency of trade. The ringgit has strengthened 11.5 percent against the dollar since the start of 2017 and was up 0.4 percent at 3.9700 on Friday evening. A stronger ringgit usually makes palm oil more expensive for foreign buyers. In related edible oils, the March soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade declined 0.9 percent in overnight trade and was last down 0.1 percent on Friday.
The May soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.9 percent, while the Dalian January palm oil contract was down 1.4 percent. Palm oil tracks the performance of other edible oils that compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. Palm oil could break a support at 2,555 ringgit a tonne and fall to the next support at 2,519 ringgit, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
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