Malaysian palm oil futures reversed losses to chart their strongest daily gains in nearly two weeks on Thursday evening, as a weaker ringgit supported prices. Palm however is down 3 percent so far this week, its sharpest weekly drop since early July. Benchmark palm oil for December on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.9 percent to 2,579 ringgit ($623) a tonne at the end of the trading day.
It earlier fell to an intraday low of 2,538 ringgit, which matched the low on September 2, before rising to see its strongest gains since September 26. Traded volumes stood at 57,569 lots of 25 tonnes each in the evening, more than the 2015 daily average of 44,600 lots. "There was some ringgit weakness and technical buying," said a futures trader based in Kuala Lumpur.
The weaker ringgit, palm's traded currency, also supported prices of the tropical oil by making it cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. It weakened 0.1 percent to reach 4.1400 against the dollar on Thursday evening. In related vegetable oils, the soyabean oil December contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.1 percent.