Malaysian palm oil futures fell to their lowest in a week on Friday evening, tracking weaker performing related oils. Benchmark palm oil futures for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slipped 0.6 percent at 2,754 ringgit ($622.65) a tonne at the end of the trading day. The contract earlier hit an intraday low of 2,742 ringgit, its weakest level since March 16.
Traded volumes stood at 35,912 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening. Palm is down 1.7 percent for the week.
"Soyabean oil is one factor, another thing is some are taking advantage of higher prices in the previous sessions to sell," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to soyaoil on the Chicago Board of Trade. Palm had climbed to two-week highs on Wednesday before declining on Thursday and Friday.
Palm oil prices are affected by movements in other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
US soyaoil declined in line with weaker performing soyabeans on Friday, which fell as global supplies remained high despite the recent strong demand for US supplies. Soyabean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1.1 percent, while the September soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell as much as 1.2 percent.
The September contract for palm olein on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped as much as 1.6 percent.
Palm oil could fall further to 2,730 ringgit per tonne, according to analysis by a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.