Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose 1.5 percent on Monday, rebounding from last week's three-week low on fears of tight supplies due to renewed protests by Argentine farmers and prospect of firmer Asian demand.
Palm oil prices, which have drifted for the past three weeks, are heading downwards on a bearish mix of factors such as lower Indonesian export taxes, weak soyoil prices and a firmer ringgit against the dollar. The benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 49 ringgit at 3,390 ringgit ($1,074) per tonne. On Friday, the market went as low as 3,306 ringgit, a level unseen since April 9.
"The losses and gains in palm oil market are not as spectacular as before, investors are getting cautious," said a trader at a local commodities broker. "But there is some support from Argentine strike action and the presence of Indian buyers in the cash market."
Other traded months rose between 37 and 58 ringgit. Overall trade dropped to 3,463 lots of 25 tonnes each from the usual 8,000 lots. Argentine farmers will limit sales of agricultural goods in a renewed protest against a tax hike on soy exports, but they will continue to negotiate with the government, a farm leader said on Friday. May soyoil at the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.94 percent, extending last week's gains due to uncertainty over Argentine soy movements, given the absence of a solution to the row between farmers and the government over a soy export tax.
But the most-active September soyoil contract on Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped in Asian hours. Exports of Malaysian palm oil in April recovered from steep losses earlier in the month but posted up to a 7.4 percent increase in sales, cargo surveyors said last week. India's MMTC Ltd last week floated a tender to import 22,000 tonnes of crude palm oil and 22,000 tonnes of refined, bleached and deodorised palmolein.