Palm oil prices fall more than 1% on India tax hike
JAKARTA (March 9): Malaysian palm oil futures fell more than 1% on Friday, marking close to a 4% weekly drop, as concerns lingered over slowing demand after major consumer India increased import taxes last week.
The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 1.4% to RM2,376 (US$607.67) a tonne by the close.
Prices touched a low of RM2,368, their weakest in 19 months.
The palm contract registered a weekly drop of 3.9%, its worst weekly performance since the week ending Jan. 19.
Trading volumes stood at 80,721 lots of 25 tonnes each.
Palm oil prices have dipped to their lowest in a year and a half after major edible oils importer India raised import taxes on the vegetable oil to their highest in more than a decade.
David Ng, an analyst at Phillip Futures in Kuala Lumpur, said he did not foresee any relief for the edible oil as export data due next week is expected to be weak.
"It looks like the market is reacting towards the possibility of bad exports," Ng said.
Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services (ITS) is expected to publish Malaysian palm oil export data on Monday.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Feb. 1-25 rose 5% month on month to 1,064,823 tonnes, ITS data showed last month.
In related oils, the May soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped by almost 0.5%.
The May soybean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 1.2%, while the Dalian May palm oil contract fell 1.8%.
Palm oil prices track the performances of other edible oils that compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Source: Reuters
