KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose by more than 1 percent on Tuesday to their highest level in over one week, tracking strength in U.S. soyoil prices and on a weaker ringgit.
The ringgit, palm’s currency of trade, weakened as much as 0.2 percent, making the vegetable oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies.
The currency was last down 0.1 percent at 4.0850 per dollar.
The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.6 percent at 2,299 ringgit ($562.79) a tonne at the midday break.
Earlier in the session, it climbed as much as 1.1 percent to 2,311 ringgit, its highest since Feb. 8. Trading volumes stood at 12,586 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.
“The palm market is up on supportive external markets, along with the weaker ringgit,“ said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to soyoil prices on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade.
The market was also up on expectation of supportive cargo surveyor export data for Feb. 1-20, said the trader.
Exports from Malaysia during Feb. 1-15 rose between 4.2-12.9 percent from a month earlier, according to cargo surveyors.
Cargo surveyors are scheduled to release export data for the Feb. 1-20 period on Wednesday.
In other related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil contract was up 0.8 percent on Tuesday, in line with gains in soybeans on optimism about a trade deal between the United States and China.
The May soyoil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.8 percent, while the Dalian May palm oil contract added 1.1 percent.
Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyoil, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.
Palm oil may rise to 2,316 ringgit per tonne, as it has broken a resistance at 2,285 ringgit, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
