KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures opened higher on Wednesday, buoyed by stronger Dalian palm olein and crude oil prices though weaker soyoil prices limited the gains.
The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained RM9, or 0.2 per cent, to RM4,497 (US$1,016.04) a metric ton in early trade.
The contract fell 2.96 per cent over the past two sessions.
FUNDAMENTALS
Dalian's most-active soyoil contract fell 1.09 per cent, while its palm oil contract gained 0.4 per cent. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 0.02 per cent.
Palm oil tracks price movements of rival edible oils, as it competes for a share of the global vegetable oils market.
Oil prices edged up, helped by a weaker dollar, but mounting fears of a US economic slowdown and the impact of tariffs on global economic growth capped gains.
Stronger crude oil futures make palm a more attractive option for biodiesel feedstock.
The ringgit, palm's currency of trade, weakened 0.34 per cent against the dollar, making the commodity cheaper for buyers holding foreign currencies.
India's palm oil imports in February rose 35.7 per cent from January to 373,549 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said on Tuesday.
Prices of cooking oil could be buoyed up for years by stagnating production and a biodiesel push in top producer Indonesia that are making traditionally cheap palm oil costlier, eliminating an advantage that also curbed prices of rival oils.
Palm oil still targets RM4,360 per metric ton, as pointed by a rising trendline, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.
MARKET NEWS
The euro was riding at five-month highs on Wednesday on Ukraine's readiness to accept a month-long ceasefire, while stocks whipsawed on back-and-forth US tariff plans and concern about a US economic slowdown.
