By Rajendra Jadhav
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures extended declines on Tuesday to hit their lowest in nearly a month, weighed down by lacklustre export demand and overnight losses in the U.S. soyoil market.
The palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.95 percent at 2,386 ringgit ($601.01) a tonne at the midday break. Earlier in the session, the contract hit 2,382 ringgit, its lowest since May 8.
Trading volume stood at 11,875 lots of 25 tonnes.
"Ramdan buying has fizzled out. Fresh export orders are not coming in at the expected pace," said a Kuala Lumpur-based palm trader said.
Buyers typically stock up palm oil a month before Ramadan, which began in mid-May this year.
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Malaysia's palm oil exports in May dropped 8.8 percent from April to around 1.2 million tonnes, independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia said last week.
Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) said the country's May palm oil exports fell 9.9 percent from a month ago.
In Indonesia, the world's top palm oil exporter, shipments of palm and palm kernel oils plunged 13.6 percent in April, data from the Indonesia Palm Oil Association showed.
"If the current trend continues, then Malaysia's June export numbers could be lower than May," another Kuala Lumpur-based palm trader said.
In related vegetable oils, the Chicago July soybean oil contract dipped as much as 0.3 percent, while September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped up to 1.22 percent.
Palm oil is affected by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm oil may break a support at 2,408 ringgit per tonne and fall to the next support at 2,364 ringgit, as suggested by a retracement analysis, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)