Vegoils: Palm oil near three-year low tracking weakness in related oils

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell to their lowest in nearly three years on Friday and were set for a fourth session of losses, tracking declines in related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.1 percent at 2,183 ringgit ($540.61) a tonne at the midday break.

It earlier fell as much as 0.7 percent to 2,170 ringgit, the lowest since Sept. 22, 2015. It is down 3.7 percent so far this week, as sentiment was largely bearish due to weak demand and jitters over the Sino-U.S. trade spat.

 

Trading volumes stood at 18,288 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break.

"Weakness in CBOT soybean oil and Dalian olein prices are pressuring palm," said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur, referring to U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and palm olein prices on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The market was waiting for fresh triggers, another trader added.

Palm oil prices are usually impacted by the performance of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

The Chicago December soybean oil contract fell 0.4 percent, while the September soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped to 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the Dalian September palm oil contract eased 0.4 percent.

Palm oil is expected to break a support at 2,187 ringgit per tonne and fall more to 2,148 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sunil Nair)