Malaysian palm oil futures edged down on Friday and recorded their biggest weekly drop in five, with buying interest curbed as the ringgit hit its highest in more than seven months. The Malaysian ringgit gained as much as 0.6 percent to 3.1790 per dollar on Friday, its strongest since November 20, making the ringgit-priced feedstock more expensive for overseas investors and refiners.
"We predict a mixed and uncertain direction due the strong ringgit and talk of tight palm supplies for the nearby period," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Malaysia. The benchmark September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had edged down 0.9 percent to 2,402 ringgit ($754) per tonne by Friday's close, notching its sixth day of decline in seven. Palm prices have lost 1.8 percent this week, marking their biggest weekly drop in five.
Total traded volume stood at 29,083 lots of 25 tonnes, below the average 35,000 lots. Technicals showed that Malaysian palm oil is expected to revisit its July 1 low of 2,385 ringgit per tonne, as it has completed a rebound from this level, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
A Reuters survey of planters, traders and analysts showed that Malaysia's June palm oil stocks are set fall 2.2 percent to 1.80 million tonnes at end-June, their first drop in four months, due to a pickup in overseas sales and as dry weather curbed output. Market players are looking to monthly industry data due next Thursday on Malaysia's palm oil stocks, output and exports in June to gauge supply and global demand for the tropical oil. In other competing vegetable oil markets, the most active soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange shed 0.7 percent in late Asian trade. The US soyoil contract is closed for a holiday.