20/06/2013 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a near 3-month high on Wednesday, reversing losses in the morning session as investors placed bets for export demand to rise further after strong performance in the first half of the month.

Prices on Tuesday rose to their highest since March 25, prompting some profit-taking in the early trading session, but investors turned bullish after the midday break on hopes for higher demand ahead of Ramadan.

Muslims typically gather throughout the holy month for communal feasting, driving up consumption for the edible oil.

A weaker ringgit against the dollar, which makes the feedstock cheaper for overseas buyers and lifts refiners' margins, also provided further support. For the week, the
currency has lost nearly 1.2 percent.

"Looking at the strong exports, it doesn't look like the market will go down for the time being. If the exports continue to be so strong, and the ringgit so weak, it's hard to see the market coming off," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

The benchmark September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.2 percent to close at 2,472 ringgit ($785) per tonne. Prices earlier rose to 2,482 ringgit, a level unseen since March 25.

Total traded volume was muted, at 24,452 lots of 25 tonnes each, lower than the average 35,000 lots for the morning session.

Exports of Malaysia's palm oil products surged as much as 19 percent over the period from June 1 to 15 versus the corresponding period last month, lifting investors' hopes that the 1.82-million-tonne stockpile in the world's second-largest producer will shrink further. 

Cargo surveyors will release export data for June 1-20 on Thursday. 

In other markets, Brent oil prices rose slightly on Wednesday as investors looked to a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve for clues on the outlook for the central bank's stimulus programme that has underpinned commodity prices.

In vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for July rose 0.6 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange edged down 0.3 percent.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1011 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JUL3    2466    +1.00    2444    2472     905
  MY PALM OIL      AUG3    2480    +7.00    2455    2489    3837
  MY PALM OIL      SEP3    2472    +4.00    2449    2482   13866
  CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN4    6238   -64.00    6210    6268  417978
  CHINA SOYOIL     JAN4    7680   -24.00    7644    7690  358004
  CBOT SOY OIL     JUL3   49.08    +0.27   48.67   49.10    4902
  NYMEX CRUDE      JUL3   98.91    +0.47   98.27   99.01    8113

  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=3.15 ringgit)