Indian soyaoil futures rose for a fourth straight day on Friday, supported by an upside in the world market, weak rupee and good demand in the local spot markets. Soyabean and rapeseed also rose, tracking firm cues from overseas markets, but recent rainfall in oilseed growing central and northern India weighed on sentiment.
Malaysian palm oil futures were up 0.33 percent at 3,071 ringgit per tonne by 0750 GMT, while US soyabean jumped 0.86 percent to $17.29-3/4 per bushel. "Overseas markets are influencing soyaoil prices. Weak rupee and good demand in the physical market are giving support to prices," said Faiyaz Hudani, senior research analyst at Kotak Commodity Services Ltd.
A weak rupee makes edible oil imports expensive and at the same time raises returns of oilmeal exporters. Soya fields in Iowa, the No 1 growing state in the United States, have fallen victim to the historic drought and is expected to drag national yields below the government's latest projections, according to the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour.
The September soyaoil contract on India's National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange rose 0.33 percent to 810.2 rupees per 10 kg. It earlier in the day rose to 813 rupees, a bit shy of the record high of 813.4 rupees hit in July. The October soyabean contract edged up 0.47 percent to 4,029 rupees per 100 kg, while September rapeseed rose 0.45 percent to 4,458 rupees per 100 kg.
At the Indore spot market in Madhya Pradesh, soyaoil rose 0.7 rupees to 792.75 rupees per 10kg, while soyabean fell by 35 rupees to 4,569 rupees per 100 kg. At Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, rapeseed jumped 83 rupees to 4,383 rupees per 100 kg. Indian farmers have cultivated soyabean on 10.64 million hectares as on August 16, compared with 10.23 million hectares at the same time a year earlier, farm ministry data showed. India's vegetable oils industry has called on the government to press China to lift a ban on imports of Indian rapeseed meal, a key industry official said on Wednesday, ahead of the arrival by end-August of a delegation from Beijing.