Oilseeds and soyoil futures were treading water on Tuesday as weak demand and a strong rupee outweighed gains in overseas prices.
A strong rupee makes edible oil imports cheaper and at the same time trims returns of oilmeal exporters. The rupee was trading at 53.64/65 to the dollar versus its previous close of 53.91/92.
As of 0817 GMT, Malaysian palm oil futures were up 1.43 per cent at 2,480 ringgit per tonne, while U.S. soybeans eased 0.16 per cent to $14.45-1/2 per bushel, after rising 0.5 per cent in the previous session.
"Soyoil is in overbought region. A correction is due. Demand was weak in spot markets. Traders were postponing big purchases," said Prasoon Mathur, a senior analyst with Religare Commodities.
The actively traded soyoil contract for February delivery on India's National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange was 0.12 per cent higher at 726.2 rupees per 10 kg.
The most-active soybeans contract for February delivery was down 0.02 per cent at 3,246 rupees per 100 kg, while rapeseed contract for April eased 0.26 per cent to 3,426 rupees per 100 kg.
At the Indore spot market in Madhya Pradesh, soyoil eased by 2.9 rupees to 754.85 rupees per 10 kg, while soybeans dropped 20 rupees to 3,313 rupees per 100 kg. At Jaipur in Rajasthan, rapeseed fell 42 rupees to 3,934 rupees.
India raised the base import price of crude palm oil by nearly 80 per cent to $802 per tonne, the government said, as part of efforts to curb overseas purchases and protect domestic oilseed farmers.
India has slapped a 2.5 per cent import duty on crude edible oils to stem overseas purchases by the world's top vegetable oil buyer.
Despite higher import duty, India's edible oil imports in January are likely to rise as Malaysia has allowed duty free exports, Mathur said.
