KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 12): Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Wednesday, giving up some gains made in the morning session when it had touched a week high, after a bout of
technical correction pressured prices of the tropical commodity.
   
"There was short-term technical weakness and correction after rising over the last two days," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.   
    
The benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.2 percent to 2,260 ringgit ($679) per tonne by Wednesday's close. Prices had touched their highest since Nov. 5 at 2,286 ringgit in early trade before slipping.
    
Total traded volume stood at 41,671 lots of 25 tonnes, above the usual 35,000 lots.
     
Crude palm oil output in world's top grower Indonesia fell around 11 percent to 2.385 million tonnes in October, a Reuters survey of leading industry officials showed, with production hampered by dry weather across plantations.
    
Brazil's government crop supply agency Conab on Tuesday forecast a 2014/15 soybean crop of between 89.3 million tonnes and 91.7 million tonnes, still a record, but below market estimates that have gone as high as 98 million tonnes.
 
In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December gained 0.6 percent in late Asian trade, while the most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange climbed 1.4 percent.
    
Investors are also keeping a close watch on crude oil's sell-off, which could lower palm's demand for biodiesel use.
    
Brent crude slipped near $81 a barrel on Wednesday, close to a four-year low as a mounting oil glut created by the U.S. shale boom continued to outweigh concerns about supplies from Libya.
 
 
 Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1032 GMT                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                 
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume                                                                                                 
  MY PALM OIL      NOV4    2220   -20.00    2219    2260      20                                                                                                 
  MY PALM OIL      DEC4    2247   -20.00    2242    2280    1700                                                                                                 
  MY PALM OIL      JAN5    2260    -6.00    2257    2286   23412                                                                                                 
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5    5420   +46.00    5380    5450  941992                                                                                                 
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY5    5988   +80.00    5982    6018  455254                                                                                                 
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC4   33.10    +1.30   32.87   33.21    7460                                                                                                 
  INDIA PALM OIL   NOV4  451.70    +1.30  450.60  454.40     902                                                                                                 
  INDIA SOYOIL     NOV4  585.65    -0.30  584.50  588.40    3550                                                                                                 
  NYMEX CRUDE      DEC4   77.24    -0.70   77.10   77.62   23164                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                 
  Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne                                                                                                                 
  CBOT soy oil in U.S. 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 U.S. dollars per barrel                                                                                                                               
 
($1 = 3.33 Malaysian ringgit)    
($1 = 6.1262 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 61.49 Indian rupee)