* Palm tracks drops in Dalian RBD palm oil -trader
* Russia considers limits on palm oil use in food production
By Fergus Jensen
JAKARTA, July 23 (Reuters) – Malaysian palm oil futures
declined on Thursday, extending losses into a second session,
following declines in competing markets and news that Russia was
considering imposing limits on the use of the tropical oil.
By the midday break, benchmark palm oil for October delivery
on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives was down 0.54 percent to
2,193 ringgit ($ 576.20) a tonne.
Volume stood at 11,207 lots of 25 tonnes each, below the
roughly 13,500 lots usually traded by midday.
“If there’s a recovery in afternoon trading in China,
there’s a possibility palm could come back a bit,” said a trader
with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur, noting
that palm futures were tracking RBD palm oil futures on China’s
Dalian Commodities Exchange, as well as U.S. grains prices.
“The US is moving into the planting season now so it’s very
important that if there’s any weather adversity it will be
supportive for the grain complex and indirectly for Malaysian
palm oil,” the trader added.
If palm drops below 2,180 ringgit in the afternoon session,
there will be further liquidation, the trader said.
News that Russia was considering imposing limits on the use
of palm oil in food production also weighed on prices of the
tropical oil.
Technical charts, however, show palm futures may retest a
resistance at 2,227 ringgit per tonne, a break above which could
lead to a gain to 2,249 ringgit.
In competing markets, the most-active soybean oil contract
on the Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped 0.91 percent,
while Dalian RBD palm oil for September delivery fell
0.66 percent.
Chicago corn lost more ground on Thursday, falling for a
fourth session out of five, and was trading near a three-week
low as benign weather across the U.S. Midwest raised hopes of
bumper production.
Oil prices held steady, with U.S. crude trading below $ 50 a
barrel near its lowest in more than three months as rising U.S.
stockpiles and a strong dollar weighed on the commodity.
The Malaysian ringgit slipped 0.39 percent against
the dollar on Thursday. A weaker ringgit makes palm oil more
attractive to international buyers holding other currencies.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0507 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2187 -18.00 2186 2190 9
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2193 -12.00 2185 2198 3163
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2193 -12.00 2186 2200 5664
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4896 -58.00 4862 4928 507808
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5634 -52.00 5600 5654 374162
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 31.82 -1.10 31.70 31.90 2770
INDIA PALM OIL JUL5 430.50 -1.10 430.00 431.90 74
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 574.55 -1.00 573.80 576.00 5050
NYMEX CRUDE SEP5 49.32 +0.13 49.19 49.35 6808
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 = 3.8060 ringgit)
($ 1 = 6.2094 Chinese yuan renminbi)
($ 1 = 63.7400 Indian rupees)
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
