Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended down more than 1 percent after a volatile trading day on Thursday, with some players starting to unwind positions ahead of a long holiday weekend, dealers said. The benchmark November crude palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 32 ringgit to close at 2,503 ringgit ($739) a tonne. It hit a session low of 2,452 ringgit and a high of 2,558 ringgit.
"In Malaysia, Monday is a holiday so everybody is book-squaring or making their positions even ahead of the three-day holiday," said a dealer at a foreign brokerage firm. Other traded months fell between 1 to 60 ringgit, except March and July contracts, which rose 15 and 24 ringgit, respectively. Overall volume stood at 15,924 lots of 25 tonnes each. Oil rose towards $120 a barrel on Thursday, its fourth day of gains, supported by the threat of damage to US oil installations from tropical storm Gustav.
US crude futures for October delivery were up 76 cents to $118.91 a barrel by 1000 GMT. Palm oil futures have been hurt this week by rising supply and falling soyoil prices. Industry analyst Dorab Mistry told a conference earlier this week that benchmark crude palm oil futures were likely to fall to 2,200 ringgit per tonne due to increasing supplies.
Malaysian crude palm oil output forecasts of 17.4 million tonnes for 2008 could be comfortably exceeded, while Indonesia's output will rise beyond 19 million tonnes, he said. September soybean oil futures, which usually signal the trend in palm oil futures, were down 1.44 percent at 53.44 US cents per lb at 1100 GMT on Thursday.
INDONESIA PALM STEADY Indonesian crude palm oil prices steadied on Thursday but market players remained cautious. The state marketing centre in Jakarta sold crude palm oil at 6,525 rupiah ($0.713) per kg, FOB Boom Baru in South Sumatra. The centre, which sells palm oil from state plantations, failed to sell palm oil from Belawan and Dumai ports, which are the benchmark for the centre's auction prices.
Producers in Medan, North Sumatra-home to Belawan port, the country's key port for palm oil exports- offered crude oil at 6,580-6,610 rupiah a kg, little changed from 6,500-6,600 rupiah a kg on Wednesday. In the physical market in Malaysia, crude palm oil for delivery in September was offered at 2,480/2,500 ringgit a tonne in central region. Trades were done at 2,500-2,540.