Malaysian palm oil futures edged up on Wednesday evening in its third session of gains in four, as traders forecast end-March stockpiles to be lower when official data comes in next week. The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.7 percent to 2,454 ringgit ($634.44) a tonne
at Wednesday's close of trade. Trading volumes stood at 68,240 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.
Palm had earlier fallen more than 2 percent to a 3-week low of 2,383 ringgit in the afternoon session tracking US soyaoil on the Chicago Board of Trade. Soyabean and soyaoil futures slid after China announced on Wednesday afternoon it will impose additional tariffs of 25 percent on 106 US goods including soyabeans.
Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. "Palm initially fell on China's announcement, but then the market saw a turnaround realising it could be beneficial to palm," said a futures trader based in Kuala Lumpur, adding that it rose further on expectations of lower end-stocks in Malaysia.
Another palm trader earlier said prices could range-trade pending the official release of data from industry regulator, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), on April 10. In related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May soyabean oil contract was down 1.9 percent.
The May soyabean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 1.1 percent, while the Dalian May palm oil contract rose 0.3 percent.
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