Malaysian palm oil futures dropped from an eight-week high on Thursday, falling as much as 1.4 percent in the second half of trade, weighed down by weaker soyoil on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and profit taking.
The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.7 percent at 2,183 ringgit ($522.75) a tonne at the close of trade.
It earlier rose to 2,200 ringgit a tonne, matching the previous sessions’ intraday high, its best since Oct. 24.
Trading volumes stood at 37,486 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.
Palm oil prices are impacted by changes in soyoil prices, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.
U.S. soybean prices hit a three-week low on Thursday, with investors disappointed by the strength of Chinese demand for North American supplies amid a truce in a trade war between the two nations.
Soybean and soyoil prices were up earlier after Chinese importers booked U.S. soybean shipments in the second wave of purchases since striking a trade war truce with Washington earlier this month.
The Chicago January soybean oil contract was last down 0.1 percent, while the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained 1 percent.
In other related oils, the Dalian January palm oil contract rose 1.6 percent.
