By Emily Chow
A weaker ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically makes the tropical oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. The ringgit fell to its weakest levels against the dollar since the start of the year on Wednesday morning, and was last down 0.1 percent at 4.0250 ringgit per dollar.
The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.5 percent to 2,289 ringgit ($568.70) per tonne at the midday break, and was heading for its third gain in four sessions.
Trading volumes stood at 9,448 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.
"The market is supported by the ringgit's weakness and the supportive DCE market," said a Kuala Lumpur based trader.
"However it is still waiting for fresh bull news to break above 2,300 ringgit."
Palm oil has been trading below 2,300 ringgit at two-year lows since last week, and has declined 5.8 percent since the start of June on the back of weakening demand. [POI/]
Exports of palm oil from Malaysia, the world's second largest producer, for the June 1-25 period fell 12.6-14.1 percent on-month, according to data from independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia and cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance this week. [PALM/AAM] [PALM/SGS]
Palm oil may be rangebound between 2,150 ringgit and 2,398 ringgit per tonne in the third quarter, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
In other related oils, the Chicago July soybean oil contract was little changed, while the September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the Dalian September palm oil contract was up 0.9 percent.
Palm oil prices track the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0508 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUL8 2277 -3.00 2276 2277 38
MY PALM OIL AUG8 2290 +10.00 2276 2291 899
MY PALM OIL SEP8 2289 +12.00 2271 2290 4159
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 4774 +42.00 4742 4786 126882
CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5548 +70.00 5500 5562 249766
CBOT SOY OIL DEC8 29.6 +0.00 29.52 29.67 3284
INDIA PALM OIL JUN8 641.60 +1.40 641.50 642.4 86
INDIA SOYOIL JUL8 747.1 +1.25 744.2 747.5 1090
NYMEX CRUDE AUG8 70.72 +0.19 70.56 70.98 34472
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 4.0250 ringgit)
($1 = 68.4900 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.5944 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Richard Pullin)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)