Speculative palm oil contracts in Malaysia continue to show a decline for the third week in a row. On Friday, the market reacted to the weakness of other vegetable oils, following two periods of growth.
The September palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange dropped by 60 ringgit, which is 1.52%, and reached 3899 ringgit ($827.81) per metric ton at the close. Over the week, the contract lost 1.19% of its value.
"Crude palm oil futures declined ahead of the weekend due to profit-taking. Furthermore, CPO futures faced pressure from losses in vegetable oil futures on the Dalian Exchange," said Satya Varka, Senior Analyst at Fastmarkets Palm Oil Analytics.
Market participants are now awaiting production estimates for the period from June 1 to June 20, which will help assess the end-of-month inventory, added the analyst.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products from June 1 to June 20 decreased by 8.1% - 12.9% compared to the period from May 1 to May 20. Data from the independent inspection companies AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Intertek Testing Services turned out to be better than estimates for the period from June 1 to June 15.
According to LSEG, Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), a surveying company, expects exports to reach 737,717 metric tons, compared to 647,353 tons shipped from June 1 to June 20.
Soybean oil in Dalian also experienced a 0.99% decline, while the palm oil contract dropped by 0.78%. Soybean oil prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell by 0.45%.
Palm oil prices are heavily influenced by changes in prices of other vegetable oils as they compete in the global market.
(1 dollar = 4.7100 ringgit)