Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: VEGOILS-Palm oil flat in thin trade; exports eyed

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VEGOILS-Palm oil flat in thin trade; exports eyed Apr 27th 2012, 05:40 Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:40am EDT * Tight soybean supply offsets Spain debt downgrade * Malaysian palm oil exports for April due Monday * Palm oil to test support at 3,439 ringgit -analyst (Updates prices, adds detail) By Chew Yee Kiat SINGAPORE, April 27 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures were flat on Friday as tight soybean supplies from Argentina offset concerns triggered by a Spanish debt downgrade, with traders awaiting export data on Monday for more clues on price movements. Palm oil is set to end the week unchanged, with investor sentiment caught in a tug of war between tight global oilseed supply due to bad weather in Argentina and concerns about euro zone debt. "The market is a bit quiet today ahead of the weekend. There is no direction as traders are waiting for developments in the market, plus price movements in CBOT and Dalian soybean oil look insignificant. The Market looks to be rangebound between 3,480 and 3,520 ringgit," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia. Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were flat at 3,500 ringgit ($1,148) per tonne by the midday break. Traded volumes were thin at 7,163 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 12,500 lots. Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 25 days of the month recovered compared to April 1-20, although the numbers were still lower than a month ago. Traders attributed the improvement to stronger demand from major food buyers China and India as well as the biodiesel industry in Europe, with the focus now shifting to full-month export numbers due on Monday. One of Argentina's biggest grains exchanges cut another million tonnes off its 2011/12 soy crop forecasts on Thursday, citing poor yields, adding to bullishness supporting palm oil prices. But investor enthusiasm was tempered after Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating on Spain by two notches to BBB-plus on Thursday, raising new fears about the lingering euro zone debt crisis. Palm oil will likely head towards 3,397 ringgit after testing support at 3,439 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for May was almost flat, while the most active Dalian soyoil September contract inched up 0.1 percent. Brent crude dropped on Friday to trade just above $119 a barrel. Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0514 GMT Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume MY PALM OIL MAY2 3490 -20.00 3477 3502 322 MY PALM OIL JUN2 3510 -6.00 3499 3515 923 MY PALM OIL JUL2 3500 +0.00 3488 3504 3976 CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2 8782 +24.00 8760 8798 71330 CHINA SOYOIL SEP2 9944 +8.00 9934 9968 198474 CBOT SOY OIL JUL2 55.75 +0.00 55.74 55.92 4614 NYMEX CRUDE JUN2 103.99 -0.56 103.94 104.24 3419 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 Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel ($1 = 3.05 ringgit) (Editing by Joseph Radford) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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