KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures notched up their biggest daily gain in nearly five months on Friday, rising over 2 percent on a technical rebound and expectations that production will decline this month. Palm oil, however, hit its lowest since August 2016 on Thursday due to high inventories and low demand, and has shed 3.3 percent so far this month after declining 7.5 percent in November. Palm oil production typically peaks in the third quarter of the year before declining towards the year end and into the start of the following year. In other related oils, the January soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.9 percent, while the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.9 percent.The Dalian January palm olein contract dipped 0.2 percent. Palm oil prices are affected by other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Source: The Star December 15, 2017 22:41 UTC