15/03/2012 (Business Recorder) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose to a nine-month high on Wednesday as recovering exports raised demand prospects for the edible oil and upbeat US economic data lifted investor confidence.

An improvement in Malaysian exports for the first ten days of March has also helped palm oil extend its gain to 6.6 percent this year, although optimism was somewhat clouded by an unexpected rise in February palm oil stocks.

"Exports seemed good for the month as we see from the first ten days, we should expect higher exports this month," said a trader with a foreign brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

Benchmark May palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.6 percent to close at 3,385 ringgit ($1,110) per tonne.

Prices touched a new high of 3,395 ringgit, a level not seen since last June.

Traded volumes on Wednesday stood at 24,003 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly lower than the usual 25,000 lots.

The rise in stocks in February was due to a slowdown in exports, but early March data showed a 32 percent surge in exports, pointing to stronger demand prospects for this month.

Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance will issue export data for March 1-15 on Thursday.

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active US soyoil contract for May delivery edged down 0.2 percent in Asian trade after climbing earlier on worries over tighter supplies due to the South American drought.

The most active September 2012 soyoil contract on China's Dalian Commodity exchange edged up 0.6 percent as Chinese demand for edible oil remained healthy.

"Prices are going up, tracking soybean oil in external markets.

Recovering Malaysian palm oil exports in early March also provided support," said Zhang Ru Ming, research manager with Liangyun Futures in Dalian.