KL palm oil weakens on export prospects

KL palm oil weakens on export prospects

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian palm oil futures gave up early gains and closed lower on prospects of weak exports.

Government efforts to persuade New Delhi to cut import duties on edible oil would be fruitless, traders said on Wednesday.

"Nobody expects anything from India now. The Indians have to safeguard their own interest," one said.

India's Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha told parliament he was ending the 55 percent concessional duty for financially troubled vanaspati units announced on February 28 in the 2001/02 federal budget.

Now all vanaspati makers will pay a duty of 75 percent.

The announcement emerged just after Lim and his Indonesian counterpart, Trade and Industry Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, ended their visit to India where they asked Delhi to cut edible oil import duty to 45 percent.

At the close, benchmark third-month July futures ended three ringgit lower at 768 ringgit ($202.10) a ton after trading as high as 782 on overnight rises in Chicago.

Volume was at 1,634 lots.

In the physical palm oil market April/May crude palm oil (CPO) for the southern region was offered as low as 755 ringgit a ton against 750 ringgit, with trade at 750 to 755.

April/May CPO (central) was offered as low as 750 ringgit against bids at 745. Trade was reported at 745 to 750.