(19/11/13 18:23:38)

* Prices trade in tight rance between 2,552-2,586 rgt
* Market quiet, investors wait for new leads on export demand -trader
* Palm oil to fall to 2,506 ringgit -technicals

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): Malaysian palm oil futures edged down to their lowest in a week on Tuesday, as investors chose to avoid risky bets, ahead of industry reports on export demand at the world's second-largest producer.

Prices were also consolidating from big gains last week, after a typhoon in the Philippines threatened an edible oil shortage in the region.

"Trade is quiet. Investors are waiting for new leads that will make the market move," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage.

"For now, the immediate support level is at 2,550 ringgit, and the resistance is at 2,600 ringgit," the trader added.

Market players are waiting for more information on export demand from cargo surveyor reports, due on Wednesday, that will show shipments of Malaysian palm oil in the Nov 1-20 period.

By Tuesday's close, the benchmark February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had lost 1.4 percent to 2,556 ringgit ($806) per tonne. Prices earlier dropped to 2,552 ringgit — the lowest since Nov 12, and were locked between 2,552 ringgit and 2,586 ringgit.

Total traded volume stood at 30,782 lots of 25 tonnes each, below the average 35,000 lots, as some investors chose to stay on the sidelines.

Technicals showed that Malaysian palm oil is expected to fall to its Nov 8 low of 2,506 ringgit per tonne, as indicated by its wave pattern and a double-top, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

The monsoon season, which has just begun, causes heavy rains and floods that complicate harvesting and cuts down on output in the world's top producers Malaysia and Indonesia.

But the drawdown to stocks could be limited by weakening exports, traders say. Cargo surveyor data showed that Malaysia's exports in the first half of November, fell 5-8 percent, from a month ago.

Demand for the tropical oil typically slackens towards the end of the year, as countries in the northern hemisphere approach winter. Palm oil's nature to solidify in cold temperatures, usually prompts some buyers to switch to alternative vegetable oils.

Some investors are optimistic that China, the world's second-largest palm oil buyer, will still import palm as buyers re-stock ahead of the Lunar New Year festival celebrated in January. Other investors, however, said traders could have booked shipments much earlier.

In other markets, Brent slipped towards $108 a barrel on Tuesday, as investors eyed this week's round of talks between world powers and Iran, that could lead to an easing of sanctions on the oil-rich country.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December was flat in late Asian trade. The most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange, fell 0.6 percent.  

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
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.17 Malaysian ringgit)