JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR (March 8): Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Wednesday, heading for their second straight session of declines, amid bearish price forecasts as output was expected to recover.
Benchmark palm oil futures for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were 0.7% lower at 2,839 ringgit (US$638.26) per tonne by mid-day break.
In the previous session, palm oil dropped 1.2%, ending a five-day winning streak.
Traders are monitoring forecasts coming out of a palm industry conference in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Leading vegetable oils analyst Thomas Mielke said at the conference on Wednesday that palm oil prices have peaked and he expects prices to fall to 2,400 ringgit per tonne by 2018.
Palm oil may test a support of 2,820 ringgit per tonne, a break below which could cause a further loss to the next support at 2,783 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.
In related vegetable oils, soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade climbed as much as 0.7%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped up to 1.9%.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0542 GMT
| Contract | Month | Last | Change | Low | High | Volume |
| MY PALM OIL | 7-Mar | 2970 | -4.00 | 2970 | 2970 | 41 |
| MY PALM OIL | 7-Apr | 2900 | -24.00 | 2889 | 2909 | 566 |
| MY PALM OIL | 7-May | 2839 | -20.00 | 2821 | 2843 | 6961 |
| CHINA PALM OLEIN | 7-May | 5830 | -62.00 | 5764 | 5876 | 386578 |
| CHINA SOYOIL | 7-May | 6546 | -70.00 | 6486 | 6596 | 300624 |
| CBOT SOY OIL | 7-May | 33.83 | 0.90 | 33.66 | 33.96 | 6827 |
| INDIA PALM OIL | 7-Mar | 532.10 | 0.90 | 528.10 | 533 | 347 |
| INDIA SOYOIL | 7-Mar | 659.70 | 3.00 | 657.50 | 660 | 1860 |
| NYMEX CRUDE | 7-Apr | 52.82 | -0.32 | 52.75 | 52.92 | 14190 |
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
(US$1 = 4.4480 ringgit)
(US$1 = 66.6400 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.9018 Chinese yuan)