KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 31): Malaysian palm oil futures were trading slightly lower on Monday, after negative export figures dampened sentiments even as the market awaited fresh global cues for direction.
Benchmark palm oil futures for January on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange started the week's trade down 0.25% at 2,781 ringgit (US$662.14) a tonne. Traded volume stood at 10,237 lots of 25 tonnes each.
A Kuala Lumpur-based trader said the futures contract was marginally down, due to negative export figures and market was awaiting fresh cues.
"Traders are awaiting Dalian RBD palm olien trading during lunch time," he said.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Oct 1-31 fell 6.4% to 1,288,894 tonnes, from 1,377,757 tonnes during the Sept 1-30 period, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.
Another trader said trading was range bound as a weaker ringgit softened the impact of poorer export data, while traders awaited cues from overseas markets.
"The first 20 days export figures had shown declining numbers, so October's exports were expected to be lower than the month before. Also, the weakness in ringgit had helped cushion any sell off," he said.
External markets such as the Dalian Commodity Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade impact the direction of palm oil futures, as the oils compete for a share in the global edible oils market.
On the Dalian, the January soybean oil contract was up as much as 0.7%, while the January contract for palm olein rose as much as 1.17%.
The Chicago Board of Trade's December soybean oil contract dipped as much as 0.45%.
Palm oil is biased to retest a resistance at 2,822 ringgit per tonne, a break above which could lead to a gain to the next resistance at 2,852 ringgit, Reuters commodities and energy markets technical analyst Wang Tao said.
Support is at 2,753 ringgit, a break below which could cause a loss to 2,729 ringgit, he added.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0442 GMT
| Contract | Month | Last | Change | Low | High | Volume |
| MY PALM OIL | NOV6 | 2781 | -9.00 | 2779 | 2789 | 81 |
| MY PALM OIL | DEC6 | 2781 | -9.00 | 2770 | 2790 | 484 |
| MY PALM OIL | JAN7 | 2781 | -7.00 | 2766 | 2787 | 6524 |
| CHINA PALM OLEIN | JAN7 | 5988 | +30.00 | 5918 | 6028 | 827106 |
| CHINA SOYOIL | JAN7 | 6734 | +20.00 | 6656 | 6764 | 512796 |
| CBOT SOY OIL | DEC6 | 35.36 | +0.00 | 35.25 | 35.48 | 2584 |
| INDIA PALM OIL | NOV6 | 0.00 | +0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 |
| INDIA SOYOIL | NOV6 | 0 | +0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NYMEX CRUDE | DEC6 | 48.50 | -0.20 | 48.17 | 48.55 | 28366 |
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 = 4.1945 ringgit)
(US$1 = 4.2000 ringgit)