20120118 1627 Palm Oil Related News.

Palm Oil Declines as Rains May Help Drought-Hit Soybean Crops
2012-01-18 06:21:24.336 GMT

By Ranjeetha Pakiam
    Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Palm oil dropped on speculation that
forecasts for rain in South America may limit damage to soybean
crops from dry weather, improving prospects for global cooking-
oil supplies.
    The April-delivery contract fell as much as 0.6 percent to
3,146 ringgit ($1,008) a metric ton on the Malaysia Derivatives
Exchange and ended the morning at 3,158 ringgit.
    There were “generally favorable” soil moisture conditions
for soybeans in Brazil, except for the state of Rio Grande do
Sul where more rain would benefit crops, Telvent DTN Inc. said
in a report yesterday. The next chance for significant rainfall
in Argentina will be later this week, the forecaster said.
    “Weather concerns still linger,” Ker Chung Yang, an
analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said by phone from Singapore.
Palm oil will trade between 3,100 ringgit and 3,200 ringgit
today, he said. Trading may decline next week because of the
Lunar New Year holidays starting on Jan. 23 and some “profit-
taking” will be seen before the long weekend, Ker said.
    “In the last two or three days, good amounts of showers
are there, but they’re further predicting the showers to stop
and dry weather conditions to come back in the next 10 to 15
days,” Vimala Reddy, an analyst at Karvy Comtrade Ltd., said by
phone from the Indian city of Hyderabad. “How far that will
happen will have to be closely watched.”
    March-delivery soybean oil, a substitute for palm oil, fell
0.4 percent to 50.56 cents a pound on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Soybeans for delivery in the same month fell 0.6 percent to
$11.77 a bushel.
    Palm oil for delivery in September lost as much as 0.4
percent to 7,952 yuan ($1,259) a ton on the Dalian Commodity
Exchange, while soybean oil for delivery in the same month
dropped as much as 0.3 percent to 8,926 yuan a ton.