Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended off an eight-and-a-half month high on Monday, with traders booking some profit on a rally driven by improving demand and still-high energy prices. Oil prices also slipped below $125 after five days of gains pushed the benchmark to 10-month highs, prompting other commodity markets like palm oil to give up some gains.
Palm oil prices have gained more than 6 percent so far this year. "The export trend is positive for crude palm oil prices. High oil prices will also be supportive because about 11 percent of global vegetable oil is used for biodiesel," said Alan Lim, research analyst with Malaysia's Kenanga Investment Bank. "But the Europe situation is still unresolved in the short term and that could be mildly negative for palm oil prices," the analyst cautioned.
Benchmark May palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended up 0.2 percent to 3,282 ringgit ($1,086) per tonne after going as high as 3,298 ringgit, the highest since June 9 last year. Traded volumes stood at 20,246 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 25,500 lots.
Reuters technicals analyst Wang Tao predicted palm oil prices to rise to 3,322 ringgit per tonne based on a wave pattern analysis. Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 25 days of February edged up 1.1 percent compared to a month ago, the first increase posted this month, said cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services. That indicated an improvement in demand prospects compared to a 2 percent decline for the first 20 days of this month.
Traders attributed the improvement to the tax-free export quotas for 3 million tonnes of crude palm oil issued in early February. Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance will release its export data later on Monday. Traders were starting to look at a probable slowdown in China's palm oil demand, as stock levels were high for the world's second largest palm oil importer. Profit-taking in the energy markets also weighed on other vegetable oil markets. The US soyoil contract for March delivery fell 0.5 percent late Asian trade.