By Liz Lee
The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1 percent at 2,303 ringgit ($576.61) per tonne at the midday break, heading for an eighth straight session of decline, in what could be its longest losing streak since mid-June 2016.
Earlier in the session, it fell as much as 1.1 percent to 2,300 ringgit, the lowest since July 28, 2016.
Trading volumes stood at 20,672 lots of 25 tonnes each.
Sentiment has been hurt by softer rival oils and crude oil, said a trader based in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil prices track the performances of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
The Chicago July soybean oil contract was down 0.03 percent, while the September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell as much as 1.5 percent. The Dalian September palm oil contract dropped as much as 2.1 percent.
Crude oil prices fell, pulled down by rising supplies in the United States and expectations that voluntary output cuts led by producer cartel OPEC could be loosened. [O/R]
Palm oil has declined 2.4 percent so far this week and 5 percent this month on weak demand and outlook, and talks of higher output and inventories.
For June 1-10, exports of palm oil, an ingredient for soaps as well as chocolates, slumped 20 percent from a month earlier to 324,947 tonnes, independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia said on Monday.
Although selling pressure in China could dampen appetite for palm, the slight weakness in the ringgit may limit the decline, said another trader.
Weakness in the ringgit, the currency in which palm is traded, makes the tropical oil more appealing to traders holding foreign currencies. The currency was last down 0.15 percent.
(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)