Credit: REUTERS/HASNOOR HUSSAINBy Mei Mei Chu
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures firmed on Friday, supported by a surge in early November exports and Indonesia's plan to raise its export tax reference price, although the contract was bound for a weekly loss.
After declining for three straight sessions, the benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 35 ringgit, or 0.84%, to 4,213 ringgit ($908.17) a tonne by the midday break.
For the week, palm is set to fall by 3.5%.
In top palm oil producer Indonesia, Trade Ministry official Farid Amir said Jakarta plans to set reference price of its crude palm oil higher at $826.58 per tonne for Nov. 16-30 shipments.
"Higher Indonesian tax and levy is set to diminish Indonesia's price discount. This will help Malaysian prices to rise," said Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics.
Palm has also made a stunning recovery and recouped some losses from the last three days helped by bullish equities market, Varqa added.
Asian shares jumped, while the dollar nursed steep losses after a smaller-than-expected increase in U.S. consumer prices fuelled hopes that the Federal Reserve could tone down its aggressive pace of interest rate hikes. MKTS/GLOB
End-October palm oil stocks at the world's second largest producer expanded for a fifth month to a three-year high of 2.4 million tonnes, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) data showed on Friday.
Dalian's most active soyoil contract DBYcv1 fell 1%, while its palm oil contract DCPcv1 gained 2%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade BOcv1 were up 0.2%.
Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
($1 = 4.6390 ringgit)
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Eileen Soreng)
((Meifong.chu@thomsonreuters.com))
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