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Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third consecutive week on Friday, recovering from a three-day slide as strength in Chicago soyoil and rival vegetable oils on China's Dalian exchange during Asian trading hours lent support, while robust exports and modest output growth also helped underpin prices.
The benchmark November contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives climbed 71 ringgit, or 1.59%, to close at 4,531 ringgit ($1,072.43) a tonne.
The contract posted a weekly gain of 1.32%.
Paramalingam Supramaniam, a director at Selangor-based brokerage Pelindung Bestari, said: "Our production in August is relatively low. Preliminary figures point to only a slight increase of 2-3%, while exports should remain strong through August and September."
The most-active soyoil contract on the Dalian exchange rose 0.64%, while its palm oil contract gained 0.4%. Chicago soyoil, meanwhile, edged down 0.02% after surging 4.73% in the previous session.
Palm oil tends to track price movements in competing vegetable oils, as it competes with them for a share of the global vegetable oil market.
Palm Oil Fell Earlier As Rival Oils Weakened On Dalian
Four trade sources familiar with the matter said Indian importers had bought palm oil from Colombia and Guatemala for the first time, as producers holding surplus stocks offered shipments at very low prices.
Data from inspection firms Intertek Testing Services and AmSpec Agri Malaysia showed that exports of Malaysian palm oil products for 1-20 August rose by between 13.6% and 17% compared with the same period the previous month.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is expected to issue a decision as early as Friday on a backlog of exemption requests from small oil refiners seeking relief from US biofuel blending rules, though a decision on whether larger refiners should compensate by increasing biofuel blending will be delayed, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said palm oil prices appear to be consolidating in a range between 4,475 and 4,542 ringgit a tonne, and a break out of this range could determine the market's next direction.
Source: Reuters