By Kanupriya Kapoor
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures extended a downward trend, closing 0.3 percent lower on Monday as weak demand weighed on prices.
The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange hit a low of 2,345 ringgit ($588) before recovering to close at 2,358 ringgit ($592) by the end of trade, the lowest since May 7.
Trading volumes were thin at 25,645 lots of 25 tonnes each.
David Ng, a palm trader at Phillip Futures, said "lacklustre demand" was primarily to blame. "The imposition of export tax at 5 percent could dampen some demand going forward," he added.
The Malaysian government reinstated export tax last month after a three-month hiatus.
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Demand for palm oil showed further signs of weakness on Monday, as Malaysia's exports between June 1 and 10 stood at 324,947 tonnes, down 20 percent from the same period a month earlier.
In other related oils, the July soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 0.3 percent, while the September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.6 percent.
Palm oil prices track the performances of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm, soy, and crude oil prices as of 1054 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUN8 2359 -19.00 2349 2371 158
MY PALM OIL JUL8 2362 -7.00 2347 2367 2307
MY PALM OIL AUG8 2358 -8.00 2345 2367 10622
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 4964 -34.00 4960 4998 186830
CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5738 -36.00 5708 5760 288084
CBOT SOY OIL JUL8 30.45 -4.90 30.41 30.52 4211
INDIA PALM OIL JUN8 640.60 -4.90 638.30 645.50 1199
INDIA SOYOIL JUN8 739.60 -8.70 739.50 749.60 6930
NYMEX CRUDE JUL8 64.98 -0.76 64.89 65.74 123004
* Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
* CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
* Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
* India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
* Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
For a table on Malaysian physical palm oil prices, including refined oil, Reuters Terminal users can double click on or type OILS/MY01.
* To view freight rates from Peninsula Malaysia/Sumatra to China, India, Pakistan and Rotterdam, please key in OILS/ASIA2 and press enter, or double click between the brackets.
* Reuters Terminal users can see cash and futures edible oil prices by double clicking on the codes in the brackets: To go to the next page in the same chain, hit F12. To go back, hit F11.
Vegetable oils -- OILS/ASIA1
Malaysian palm oil exports -- SGSPALM1
CBOT soyoil futures -- 0#BO:
CBOT soybean futures -- 0#S:
Indian solvent -- SOLVENT01
Weekly Indian vegetable oils -- OILS/IN
Dalian Commodity Exchange -- DC/MENU
Dalian soyoil futures -- 0#DBY:
Dalian refined palm oil futures -- 0#DCP:
Zhengzhou rapeseed oil -- 0#COI:
European edible oil prices/trades -- OILS/E
($1 = 3.9860 ringgit)
($1 = 67.3700 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.4047 Chinese yuan)
(Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Edmund Blair)