Malaysian palm oil futures dropped on Thursday, tracking weak soyoil prices and as traders awaited price forecasts from an industry conference. The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.6 percent at 2,821 ringgit ($667.06) a tonne at the closing session. It gained 0.8 percent on Wednesday.
Traded volumes stood at 30,455 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close on Thursday. Soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) had fallen since the mid-day break, which contributed to palm's drop, said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader. The December soybean oil contract on the CBOT fell 0.5 percent on Thursday.
In other related edible oils, the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.3 percent, while the January palm olein contract was down 0.07 percent. Prices of palm oil are impacted by movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
"There is some bargain buying in crude palm oil on lower levels ahead of the conference in Bali, as analysts will be delivering their speeches in the afternoon tomorrow," said the trader, referring to the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference which wraps up in Bali on Friday. Top industry analysts James Fry, Thomas Mielke and Dorab Mistry are scheduled to speak at the conference and provide their price outlooks.