Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed lower on Friday, dragged down by a decline in the prices of rival soyaoil and as buyers liquidated their positions. Dealers said a strong export performance unveiled by cargo surveyors failed to impress the market. "Good export numbers was something that the market knew," said one trader.
"There was lot of selling when the market broke 1,600 ringgit support." The benchmark third-month November crude palm oil contract on the Bursar Malaysia Derivatives market closed down 12 ringgit at 1,599 ringgit ($434) a tonne.
Other traded months slipped between 13 and 18 ringgit. Volumes stood at 9,131 lots of 25 tonnes each.
Exports of Malaysian oil palm products for August 1-25 stood at 1,119,785 tonnes, up 15.6 percent from the 968,714 tonnes shipped during the first 25 days of July, cargo surveyor Interlake Testing Services said.
Another cargo surveyor, Society General de Surveillance, said exports for August 1-25 rose 17 percent from 954,687 tonnes shipped between July 1 and 25. Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Thursday pressed by the weakness in the soyaoil market. Record US soyaoil stocks reported by the US Census Bureau set a weak tone in the oil market, spilling over to soyabeans.
September soyabeans ended 3/4 cent per bushel down at $5.51-1/2. New-crop November closed 1-1/2 down at $5.65. September soyaoil was 0.54 down at 24.98 cents per lb and the deferreds were 0.50 to 0.58 weaker. In the physical crude palm oil market, sellers were quoting 1,565 ringgit a tonne for August shipment and buyers 1,560 ringgit in the central region, where trades were done at 1,560 a tonne.