Palm oil lower October 25, 2013

October 25, 2013

Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Thursday, snapping four days of gains as investors booked profits from prices that hit near two-month highs in the previous session. A stronger ringgit also curbed overseas buying interest, but optimism that stocks in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer, might remain below the 2-million-tonne mark this year capped losses. Prices are still not far off Wednesday’s top of 2,485 ringgit – the highest level since August 28.

Market players are betting that output in October, typically the highest-producing month of the year, has lost steam while exports continue to hold steady. Growers’ estimates show production during October 1-20 could have dropped by 10.5 percent, quelling initial fears that Malaysian output would surge towards the end of the year and cause a stock build-up.

“The market was overdone yesterday, so there’s some profit-taking today,” said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur. By Thursday’s close, the benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had dropped 0.9 percent to 2,461 ringgit ($779) per tonne.

Total traded volume stood at 44,093 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 35,000 lots. Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil is expected to seek a support at 2,449 ringgit per tonne before retesting a resistance at 2,491 ringgit, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.

Market players will also be looking at cargo surveyor export data for the October 1-25 period, to be issued on Friday, to gauge demand of the tropical oil. In competing vegetable oil markets, the US soyoil contract for December was flat in late Asian trade, while the most-active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange rose 0.1 percent. Courtesy: Reuters

World Agriculture News,Palm, Palm Oil

Published in ZaraiMedia.com
World Agriculture News,Palm, Palm Oil