VEGOILS-Palm down after lower export data
* Malaysia's March 1-20 palm exports fall 7.1 pct - SGS
By Charlotte Greenfield
JAKARTA, March 20 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
dropped on Friday as weak export figures worried traders, but
the soft dollar helped to limit losses.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Mar. 1-20 fell
7.1 percent from the same period last month to 652,837 tonnes
cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Friday.
Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services showed
exports for the same period fell 5.5 percent.
"The slower exports in the current month is worrying the
market," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage based
in Kuala Lumpur.
The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives lost 2.04 percent to close at 2,160 ringgit
($579).
Total traded volume stood at 54,306 lots of 25 tonnes,
higher than the average 35,000 lots.
"The Fed's move to further (delay) the interest rate hike
sending the dollar lower was a supportive factor today," a
second Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.
The dollar steadied on Friday after rebounding from the
shock of a surprisingly dovish U.S. Federal Reserve, which
signalled a slower pace of interest rate hikes earlier this
week.
The softer greenback supported competing edible oils, those
priced in the dollar, as they became cheaper for buyers holding
other currencies, and that lent support to palm oil.
In other vegetable oil markets, the most active September
soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange
fell 0.22 percent, while the U.S. soyoil contract for May
inched down 0.56 percent.
Brent crude fell towards $54 a barrel on Friday and was on
track for its third straight weekly loss, hurt by oversupply
worries after Kuwait said OPEC had no choice but to maintain
output levels.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1035 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL APR5 2165 -42.00 2165 2207 276
MY PALM OIL MAY5 2165 -45.00 2165 2216 8799
MY PALM OIL JUN5 2160 -45.00 2155 2211 25089
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 4688 -30.00 4678 4756 593376
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5412 -22.00 5394 5456 514352
CBOT SOY OIL MAY5 30.45 -4.30 30.39 30.77 6402
INDIA PALM OIL MAR5 434.60 -4.30 434.60 441.40 437
INDIA SOYOIL APR5 577.60 +0.60 575.70 580.40 20135
NYMEX CRUDE APR5 43.74 -0.22 43.38 44.01 1503
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 = 3.7290 ringgit)
($1 = 6.2037 Chinese yuan renminbi)
($1 = 62.5175 Indian rupees)
(Reporting By Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by William Hardy)