KUALA LUMPUR (March 7): Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Tuesday evening to snap five sessions of gains, as it dipped on weak demand.
At the close of trade, benchmark palm oil futures for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were down 1.2% at RM2,859 (US$643.19) a tonne. In the previous session, they hit RM2,898, their highest in more than two weeks.
Traded volumes stood at 26,234 lots of 25 tonnes each on Tuesday evening.
"The market is down as there are no buyers," said a palm oil trader in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil exports from Malaysia, the world's second-largest producer, fell between 12% and 14% in February compared with a month earlier, showed cargo surveyor data.
Traders had also expected the market to drop due to expectations of bearish price forecasts at an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Palm prices are seen weakening between now and the second-half of this year as production levels are expected to recover when the effects of a crop-damaging El Nino wear off.
World palm oil production is forecast to climb 11% to 65 million tonnes this year from 58.3 million tonnes a year ago as a near-perfect weather boosts yields, a senior industry official said at the conference on Tuesday.
In related vegetable oils, soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped as much as 0.9%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange declined up to 1.4%.
The May contract for palm olein on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.6%.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1051 GMT
| Contract | Month | Last | Change | Low | High | Volume |
| MY PALM OIL | MAR7 | 2974 | -36.00 | 2950 | 2974 | 87 |
| MY PALM OIL | APR7 | 2924 | -26.00 | 2907 | 2933 | 1711 |
| MY PALM OIL | MAY7 | 2860 | -34.00 | 2841 | 2875 | 14764 |
| CHINA PALM OLEIN | MAY7 | 5876 | -34.00 | 5852 | 5940 | 386190 |
| CHINA SOYOIL | MAY7 | 6586 | -90.00 | 6568 | 6688 | 409912 |
| CBOT SOY OIL | MAY7 | 33.96 | +0.00 | 33.93 | 34.32 | 6554 |
| INDIA PALM OIL | MAR7 | 535.10 | -3.40 | 533.60 | 539.5 | 1759 |
| INDIA SOYOIL | MAR7 | 661.15 | -1.75 | 658.8 | 663.3 | 14620 |
| NYMEX CRUDE | APR7 | 53.33 | +0.13 | 53.02 | 53.41 | 64324 |
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in US cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in US dollars per barrel
(US$1 = RM4.4450)
(US$1 = 66.6800 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.8975 Chinese yuan)