Vegoils: Palm falls to two-week low on weaker exports

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell to their lowest level in two weeks during the first half of trade on Monday, in line for a third consecutive session of losses, due to weaker exports.

The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.8 percent to 2,364 ringgit ($603.37) a tonne at the midday break. It earlier fell to 2,362 ringgit, its weakest level since April 17, and also marked the steepest intraday percentage drop in two weeks.

Palm is also currently down 2.5 percent for the full month of April, in what would be a second straight month of losses.

Trading volumes stood at 11,771 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break.

"Palm is down on weaker exports," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur, referring to shipment data announced by independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia earlier on Monday.

"The market may trade listlessly this week with a downside bias," added the trader, with the market shut on Tuesday on account of Labour Day. China's palm olein contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange is also not trading on Monday and Tuesday due to the holiday.

Malaysian palm oil product exports fell 5.7 percent for the full month of April compared with March, said AmSpec Agri Malaysia.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance is scheduled to report Malaysia's palm export data on Monday afternoon.

In other related oils, the Chicago July soybean oil contract rose 0.1 percent. Palm oil is impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Palm oil may revisit its April 17 low of 2,354 ringgit per tonne, as a bounce from this level could have ended around a resistance at 2,434 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)