VEGOILS-Palm flat; trade range-bound on overnight soyoil losses, weaker ringgit
* Palm oil flat at the midday break
* Market sentiment overall weak on slow demand - trader
* Palm oil to retest support at 2,148 rgt/T
By Emily Chow
KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
were flat at the midday break on Tuesday, with trade largely
range-bound in the first half of the session, as a weaker
ringgit offset overnight losses in soyoil, said traders.
A weaker ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically
supports the tropical oil by making it cheaper for holders of
foreign currencies. The ringgit weakened 0.1 percent against the
dollar around Tuesday noon, and was last at 4.0430.
The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery
on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was at
2,173 ringgit ($537.47) a tonne at the midday break, near a
three-year low hit on Friday.
Trading volume stood at 21,441 lots of 25 tonnes each
(1FCPO-TOT)
"Palm is following the overnight drop in the rival oilseed,
but its current recovery and weakness in the local currency may
cushion selling activities," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader,
referring to U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Another trader said overall market sentiment was still weak
"as demand is still not coming in", although cargo surveyor data
showed that the decline in exports has been easing.
Malaysia palm oil exports fell 2.7 percent in the first half
of July versus the previous month, according to data from
inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia, compared with a 14.4
percent decline for the July 1-10 period.
Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported an
8.8 percent decline in Malaysian palm oil exports for the July
1-15 period, versus a 23.1 percent fall in the June 1-10 period.
In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil
contract fell over 1 percent on Monday, but was last up
0.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the September soybean oil contract on China's
Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.5 percent, and the
Dalian September palm oil contract was up 0.7 percent.
Palm oil prices are usually impacted by 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 0533 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG8 2158 +15.00 2149 2162 170
MY PALM OIL SEP8 2170 +4.00 2159 2176 5175
MY PALM OIL OCT8 2173 +0.00 2164 2182 7719
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 4636 +30.00 4626 4666 156506
CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5472 +30.00 5448 5494 130550
CBOT SOY OIL DEC8 28.19 +0.11 28.09 28.31 2710
INDIA PALM OIL JUL8 611.00 -1.70 611.00 613.1 110
INDIA SOYOIL JUL8 744 -0.20 742.8 744 130
NYMEX CRUDE AUG8 67.99 -0.07 67.92 68.22 18277
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 = 4.0430 ringgit)
($1 = 68.4400 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.6803 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sunil Nair)