Malaysian palm oil futures declined sharply in late trade on Tuesday after five straight sessions of gains, tracking weakness in related edible oils on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange and also on data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.5 percent at 2,694 ringgit ($638.84) a tonne by the end of the day, its sharpest daily drop in nearly two weeks.
It hit an intraday low of 2,686 ringgit, its weakest levels in a week. Traded volumes stood at 59,316 lots of 25 tonnes each on Tuesday evening. A trader in Kuala Lumpur attributed the market decline to the release of the MPOB data, which showed rising stockpiles that climbed to their highest levels in over a year and a half.
Inventory levels at the end of September rose 4 percent from a month earlier to 2.02 million tonnes, data from industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) showed on Tuesday. Output had declined 1.7 percent to 1.78 million tonnes, while exports rose 1.8 percent to 1.52 million tonnes.
"Palm oil is most likely down following the Dalian Commodity Exchange," said another futures trader in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the day. The January soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.9 percent, while the January palm olein contract declined 0.8 percent. In other related edible oils, the December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.5 percent.