* Palm oil declines as ringgit regains its losses
* Palm reaches lowest since April 15
* Market cashes in on weak exports, better production –
trader
(Updates latest prices, quotes)
By Emily Chow
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Reuters) – Malaysian palm oil
futures declined to their lowest levels in nearly two weeks on
Wednesday evening, as the ringgit recovered from a
one-week low against the dollar and as traders cashed in on slow
exports and improving output.
A stronger ringgit, the currency palm oil is traded in,
makes the vegetable oil more expensive for foreign currency
holders. The ringgit rose 0.3 percent to trade at 3.91 to the
dollar in the evening, having slumped to its lowest level in a
week to 3.9495 on Tuesday following news of a Malaysian
state-fund defaulting on a bond interest payment.
The palm oil contract for July delivery on the
Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 1.6 percent to 2,633
ringgit ($ 673) per tonne at the close of trade, its second
session of declines this week.
Palm earlier hit an intraday low of 2,630 ringgit, its
lowest level since April 15, and has declined 0.6 percent so far
this week. Traded volumes were 51,472 lots of 25 tonnes each,
compared with a 2015 daily average of 44,600.
“Palm is taking a cue from weaker exports and good
production to cash in on the high price,” a Kuala Lumpur based
trader said, apart from the stronger ringgit.
Export demand for Malaysian palm oil products recorded
little to no growth during April 1-25 compared with the same
period a month ago, according to cargo surveyor data.
Indonesia, the world’s largest palm producer, reported a 24
percent decline in its palm and palm kernel oil exports in March
compared with the previous month.
In competing oils, the September soybean oil contract
on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.2 percent,
while the May Chicago Board of Trade soyoil contract lost
0.4 percent.
The offer price for crude palm kernel oil stood at 4795.03
ringgit per tonne (PKO-MYSTH-M1) in the evening, according to
price assessments by Thomson Reuters.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1052 GMT:
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL MAY6 2615 -39.00 2614 2650 615
MY PALM OIL JUN6 2634 -44.00 2630 2669 3829
MY PALM OIL JUL6 2634 -42.00 2630 2670 25097
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP6 5618 -70.00 5594 5696 800674
CHINA SOYOIL SEP6 6300 -14.00 6278 6360 637692
CBOT SOY OIL JUL6 34.07 -0.40 34.05 34.31 10825
INDIA PALM OIL APR6 565.90 -0.40 565.00 567.6 1071
INDIA SOYOIL MAY6 662.4 -2.05 660.5 665.5 36760
NYMEX CRUDE JUN6 44.94 +0.90 44.40 45.13 81446
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 = 3.9100 ringgit)
($ 1 = 66.4500 Indian rupees)
($ 1 = 6.4918 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Richard Pullin, Greg
Mahlich)
