Credit: REUTERS/HASNOOR HUSSAINBy Mei Mei Chu
KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures slipped on Tuesday for a second consecutive session, weighed down by fears of rising production and tracking losses in rival edible oils.
The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, which rolled over to a new month, slid 30 ringgit, or 0.85%, to 3,482 ringgit ($785.12) a tonne by the midday break.
The market sees supply outlook in August to be much better, despite nearby tightness, where April stocks were at a 13-month low, Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics.
"Palm is now firmly under the thumb of bearish sentiment and hooked on rising production," he said.
Exports from Malaysia during the May 1-15 period rose 4% from the same period in April, according to cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services on Monday. AmSpec Agri Malaysia, another cargo surveyor, said exports rose 5.2%.
Top producer Indonesia set its crude palm oil reference price at $893.23 per tonne for the period of May 16-31, a trade ministry decree published on Monday showed.
Meanwhile, India, the world's biggest edible oil buyer, slashed base import prices of crude palm oil and soyoil, the government said in a statement late on Monday.
Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade BOcv1 were down 0.3% amid forecasts of record U.S. production. Dalian's most-active soyoil contract DBYcv1 gained 0.3%, while its palm oil contract DCPcv1 lost 0.1%.
Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm oil may test a support at 3,498 ringgit per tonne, a break below could open the way towards 3,418 ringgit, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said. TECH/C
($1 = 4.4350 ringgit)
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran and Janane Venkatraman)
((Meifong.chu@thomsonreuters.com))
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