Malaysian palm oil futures edged up on Tuesday evening on support from stronger overnight gains in soyaoil on the US Chicago Board of Trade. The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.8 percent at 2,205 ringgit ($530.69) a tonne at the close of trade. It had earlier charted two consecutive sessions of losses, and fell 1.6 percent on Monday in its biggest daily decline in nearly three weeks.
Trading volumes stood at 35,996 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day. "Gains in overnight soya are likely to spill over and stoke a higher opening for the palm market," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, adding the market's upside may however be short-lived.
"There will be cautiousness ahead of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's September report due Wednesday," he said. Malaysia's palm oil stocks likely edged down in September from seven-month highs in August as shipments from the world's No.2 exporter of the commodity outpaced production growth for the month, according to a Reuters survey.
Official data will be released on Wednesday by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. In related oils, the Chicago December soyabean oil contract rose 0.8 percent on Monday, in line with gains in soyabeans as well as rain in parts of the US Midwest threatened to slow the harvest and reduce crop quality. It was last trading down 0.2 percent on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.2 percent and the Dalian January palm oil contract rose 1.3 percent. Palm oil prices are affected by movements of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.