JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures extended losses for a second day, tracking declines in competing markets, while data showing an increase in shipments from Malaysia in June and a new Indonesian export levy provided little support.
Our palm movement is mostly driven by external influences. When soybean oil eased, we also eased in tandem,” said a palm trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur, referring to soybean oil contracts on the US Chicago Board of Trade and China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange.
The market was still trading in a range, with a support level at 2,230 ringgit, the trader added.
The August palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange was down 0.5 percent at 2,266 ringgit ($602.82) a tonne by the day’s close. Total traded volume was light at 30,135 lots of 25 tonnes each, below the more usual 35,000 lots.
The contract has fallen on five of the past six days, but was holding above Friday’s trough of 2,254 ringgit, its lowest level in two weeks.
Exports of palm oil products from the world’s second-biggest producer for June 1-15 rose 5.8 percent to 780,387 tonnes from 737,308 tonnes shipped during May 1-15, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported exports for the same period rose 6.7 percent.
