Palm oil lowers

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures were flat during the midday break on Monday, paring gains after climbing to a one-week high due to weaker export data from a cargo surveyor.

The benchmark palm oil contract for November delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was flat at 2,681 ringgit ($625.38) at the midday break. It earlier rose to 2,692 ringgit, its strongest levels since August 14. Traded volumes stood at 20,370 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.

"Palm was earlier up on overnight soyoil strength," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, adding that the market later pared its gains after the release of cargo surveyor data from ITS. Malaysian palm oil shipments between 1-20 August fell 14.7 percent versus the same time period last month.