KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures plunged as much as 5% on Wednesday, tracking deep losses in rivals Dalian and soyaoil, as fears of continuing weak exports after top buyer India imposed higher taxes weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed down 162 ringgit, or 4.78%, at 3,229 ringgit ($797.48) a tonne. It fell for a second day and logged its sharpest daily decline in nine months.

“The crude palm oil (CPO) market was reacting to the higher Indian import tariffs for the second day on bearish news dampening export demand to the world largest palm oil buyer,” said Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics.

India on Monday announced an additional tax on crude palm oil imports, effectively raising duties to 35.75% tax from 30.25% earlier. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for January declined between 32% and 37% from December, cargo surveyors said on Monday, and traders are now concerned that weak exports would spillover to this month.

Dalian’s most-active soyaoil contract fell 2.4%, while its palm oil contract slipped 2.9%. Soyaoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 1.4%.—Reuters