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VEGOILS-Palm ends lower on selling pressure, prices rangebound

(Recasts lede, adds trader quote, updates prices)

* Malaysian ringgit retreats to 3.6350 per U.S. dollar

* Palm oil to test resistance at 2,203 ringgit -technicals

* Indonesia levy seen starting early June -Indonesia finmin

By Anuradha Raghu

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

ended lower on Wednesday as the contract succumbed to selling

pressure in late afternoon trade, reversing gains stemming from

a weak ringgit which had lifted the tropcial oil to a near

two-week high.

Benchmark prices have pulled up from over three-week lows

earlier this week, following a surge in Chinese and U.S. soy

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markets, with robust export demand so far in May also fuelling

the rise. But whether prices can continue to climb will hinge on

strong demand stretching into next month, traders said.

"The demand, and the soybean oil rally, it all came in

unison. But the moment prices touched 2,190 ringgit, there was

some resistance," said a trader with a local commodities

brokerage in Malaysia.

"The big question mark is whether this export momentum will

sustain in the month of June," the trader said.

"Today they might try again to see whether prices can

sustain at 2,190 and 2,200 ringgit ... but I foresee a lot of

selling pressure."

A second Malaysian-based palm trader said selling pressure

towards the day's close forced prices to end lower, but prices

were still in a range between 2,150 and 2,200 ringgit.

The August contract on the Bursa Malaysia

Derivatives exchange had edged down 0.3 percent to 2,176 ringgit

($598.62) a tonne by Wednesday's close. Prices earlier touched

2,198 ringgit, their highest since May 15.

Total traded volume stood at 29,325 lots of 25 tonnes each,

below the average 35,000 lots.

The Malaysian ringgit was down 0.2 percent to

3.6350 per U.S. dollar by 1038 GMT.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's finance minister, Bambang

Brodjonegoro, told Reuters on Wednesday that the implementation

date for its crude palm oil levies would likely be early June.

The regulation, which will force exporters in Indonesia to

pay a levy of $50 per tonne on shipments of crude palm oil and

$30 for processed palm oil, was initially slated to kick off in

the fourth week of May.

The U.S. July soyoil contract was nearly flat in late

Asian trade, while the most active September soybean oil

contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.1

percent.

In other markets, crude futures rose about 1 percent on

Wednesday to recover some ground after steep drops in the

previous session, boosted by a weaker dollar and expectations

that U.S. crude stocks fell for a fourth straight week.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1040 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL JUN5 2145 -22.00 2141 2180 420

MY PALM OIL JUL5 2179 -7.00 2166 2197 3929

MY PALM OIL AUG5 2176 -7.00 2168 2198 14864

CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 5084 +62.00 5040 5120 972186

CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5756 +6.00 5744 5806 714074

CBOT SOY OIL JUL5 32.15 +2.50 32.02 32.30 5093

INDIA PALM OIL MAY5 455.30 +2.50 453.40 456.00 278

INDIA SOYOIL JUN5 598.40 +2.85 596.00 599.70 16425

NYMEX CRUDE JUL5 58.25 +0.22 58.16 58.95 30635

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 = 3.6350 ringgit)

($1 = 6.2014 Chinese yuan)

($1 = 64.07 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Gayatri Suroyo in JAKARTA; Editing by

Joseph Radford)