Malaysian palm oil futures fell for a third straight day on Wednesday, tracking losses in soyaoil overnight on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The benchmark palm oil contract for November delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 0.3 percent at 2,637 ringgit ($613.68) but recovered some earlier losses after being down over 1 percent at the midday break. It touched a low of 2,608 ringgit, the weakest since August 8.
Traded volumes totalled 55,323 lots of 25 tonnes each for the day. "Palm followed the drop in the external market, which fell quite a lot last night," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to CBOT soyaoil. Palm oil prices are affected by movements in related edible oils including soya, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Malaysia's palm oil production in July rose more than expected to 1.83 million tonnes, surging 20.7 percent from June, data showed last week. That was the highest monthly output in almost two years, and the strongest monthly rise since March 2015. The palm oil November contract may retrace towards support at 2,614 ringgit per tonne, following its failure to break resistance at 2,687 ringgit, according to Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
The October soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade fell to its lowest in over a month on Tuesday, declining 2.1 percent in its sharpest intraday fall since August 3. However, it picked up on Wednesday and was 0.7 percent higher in early trade. In other related oils, the January soyabean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 1.4 percent, while the January palm olein contract declined 2.1 percent.