PALM oil gained for the first time in six days yesterday as advancesin soybeans and soybean oil boosted its appeal as an alternative in
cooking and biofuel.
Prices gained as much as 1.4 per cent after
soybeans jumped the most in more than two weeks in Chicago on Wednesday
on speculation that food and animal-feed makers stepped up purchases
after prices slid to a two-month low.
“With all of the
bullishness seen in oilseeds overnight, expect palm to rally today,”
said Scott Briggs, the agricultural commodities strategist at Australia
& New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, in a report yesterday.
Palm Oil Advances for First Time in 6 Days
March-delivery palm oil rose 0.8 per cent to RM2,530 a metric ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange.
Palm
oil lost most of its early gains, tracking soybean oil in Asian
trading, on investors’ concerns that edible oils supplies are ample.
While
there’s speculation of an “improvement in shipment” of Malaysian palm
oil for the first half of January, “end- January stocks will be
massive,” said Ryan Long, a futures trader at OSK Investment Bank Bhd
in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia, the largest
producer after Indonesia, surged 16 per cent in December to the second
highest on record, at 2.24 million metric tons. Output in December
dropped 4.7 per cent to 1.52 million tons while exports slumped 20 per
cent to 1.21 million tons, the country’s Palm Oil Board said January.
11.
Two independent cargo surveyors are due to report preliminary January 1-15 export data today.
On
January. 12, the US also forecast a record soybean crop of 3.361
billion bushels, 1.3 per cent more than was projected last month and 13
per cent more than last year’s harvest, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture said on Wednesday.
World soybean production in the
crop year that began October. 1 will be a record 253.4 million metric
tons, up from 250.3 million tons forecast a month ago and 210.9 million
produced last year, according to the US report.
Source : Business Times
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