30/06/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended higher on Friday after European leaders agreed on measures to tackle the region's debt crisis, easing concern over global economic growth and commodity demand.

But palm oil still posted a 12 percent quarterly loss, the worst since the first quarter of 2011. For the week, prices rose 2.3 percent on dry weather concerns in the United States.

"On the fundamentals side, the tight supply situation is supporting the prices as currently the U.S. is facing a weather risk for corn and soy," said Ker Chung Yang, commodities analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.   

"On the macroeconomic front, we see a breakthrough from the summit in Europe. Over the weekend, we are going to see the PMI data coming from China and this will certainly be another benchmark on how the economy is doing."

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) is an important indicator of the state of China's economy.

Benchmark September palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.7 percent to close at  3,020 ringgit ($952) per tonne.

Traded volumes stood at 26,707 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly higher than the usual 25,000 lots.

Optimism returned to the market after European leaders agreed to create a single supervisory body for euro zone banks and to allow them to be recapitalised directly by the currency area's rescue fund without adding to government debt.

Palm oil demand remains healthy with Malaysian exports showing a steady improvement for the first 25 days of June compared to a month ago.

Traders expect exports for the full month to go higher on restocking ahead of the Muslim fasting month that starts at the end of July. 

Investors are also awaiting a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday to gauge stocks and production trends of soybeans. Lower stocks for crushing into soybean oil will add support to palm oil, which is already trading at a steep discount.        

Oil rallied with other commodities and the euro on Friday after European leaders agreed on a strategy to tackle soaring borrowing costs in Italy and Spain, but was still set for the deepest quarterly loss since 2008.   

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for July  delivery edged up 1.1 percent in late Asian trade. The most active January 2013 soyoil contract on Dalian commodity exchange ended 0.7 percent higher.      

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    2983    +0.00    2983    3009     233
  MY PALM OIL      AUG2    3000    +9.00    2985    3022    1868
  MY PALM OIL      SEP2    3020   +22.00    2991    3030   16425
  CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN3    8066   +92.00    7920    8070  330336
  CHINA SOYOIL     JAN3    9548   +64.00    9444    9550  463754
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC2   52.20    +0.47   51.61   52.41    6311
  NYMEX CRUDE      AUG2   79.80    +2.11   78.28   79.95   36302

  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=3.173 Malaysian ringgit)