Malaysia palm oil hit by profit-taking

Malaysia palm oil hit by profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian palm oil futures shed most of the morning's gains by the close on Tuesday as players booked profits amid uncertainty over the market's near-term direction, traders said.

The benchmark third-month March futures contract ended up five ringgit at 779 ($205) a ton after trading as high as 793.

Technical covering and talk that China, one of Malaysia's main palm oil buyers, would soon issue fresh import quotas had lifted prices earlier.

"Players are hungry for news and will jump on anything. The release of import quotas at the beginning of the year is not something new, so I don't know why the market should get excited," said one trader in Kuala Lumpur.

"If you look at local fundamentals, they are still not good," the trader said.

Physical January (south) crude palm oil was offered at 720 ringgit a ton against bids of 715. Trade was done at between 700 and 725.

February (south) was offered at 760 ringgit against bids of 755 and trade between 750 and 765.

Among refined products, January RBD palm oil was offered at $210 a ton FOB and February at $217.50.

There were offers for January RBD olein at $215 and February at $222.50.

January RBD palm stearin was offered at $185 and January palm fatty acid distillate at $162.50.

Traders said China was expected to release its first batch of palm oil import quotas for the year for amounts of between 550,000 and 600,000 tons at the end of January.