Malaysian palm oil strengthened on Wednesday evening, tracking stronger performing rival soyaoil, after a market correction on weaker exports pulled it down in early trade. Palm posted its strongest daily gain two months on Monday and climbed to its highest levels in two-and-a-half-years on Tuesday, tracking soyaoil gains on the Chicago Board of Trade and China's Dalian Commodity Exchange, before dropping sharply in the latter part of the previous session.
Benchmark palm oil futures for January on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.7 percent to 2,732 ringgit ($652) a tonne at the end of the trading day. Traded volumes stood at 48,088 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening, above the 2015 daily average of 44,600 lots. Soyabean oil was higher on both the Chicago Board of Trade and the Dalian Commodity Exchange, leading to a pick up in trading momentum in palm, said a futures trader based in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil prices are impacted by soyaoil's performance, as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market. The December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.5 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.2 percent.