31/10/2013 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rose to their highest level in eight months on Wednesday, supported by technical trading and expectations that wet weather may hit production in dominant Southeast Asian producers in the coming months.

By the midday break, the benchmark January contract  on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was trading up 2.1 percent at 2,551 ringgit ($810) per tonne.

"The market is pretty strong," said one trader with a foreign commodities brokerage. "We are going into the monsoon season and Malaysian production is likely to go down."

Both Malaysia and Indonesia, which account for about 90 percent of the world's palm oil production, are now entering their monsoon weather season.

Benchmark prices earlier touched 2,555 ringgit per tonne, their highest since Feb. 22. Total traded volume stood at 15,741 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the usual 12,500 lots.

Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil has a good chance of rising towards 2,630 ringgit, once it had broken above a resistance at 2,544 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

"I can't put a finger on it -- probably a technical move today," said a second trader with foreign commodities brokerage.

"I don't see any big changes to the fundamentals."

Competing vegetable oil markets also rose, traders said, with the U.S. soyoil contract for December up 1.9 percent in early trade. The most-active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange rose 2.6 percent.

In other markets, Brent crude edged down below $109 as fears waned about the extent of disruptions to petroleum exports from OPEC member Libya, while a higher-than-expected weekly stock build weighed on market sentiment for U.S. oil futures.

Palm traders were also positioning themselves ahead of data due on Thursday. Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance will release Malaysia's October palm oil export data on Oct. 31.

"Production is much lower than expected," said a Jakarta-based palm trader. "The bumper crop has not happened.

"Some people still hope that production will increase from December to January, but most are losing confidence on this  now happening."

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0619 GMT  

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume                                                     
  MY PALM OIL      NOV3    2570   +43.00    2557    2580     213                                                     
  MY PALM OIL      DEC3    2564   +57.00    2531    2566    1181                                                     
  MY PALM OIL      JAN4    2551   +53.00    2520    2555   10157                                                     
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY4    6332  +242.00    6166    6332  849674                                                     
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY4    7254  +182.00    7106    7268 1136772                                                     
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC3   41.76    +0.79   40.88   41.78    5961                                                     
  NYMEX CRUDE      DEC3   97.72    -0.48   97.40   97.80    8066         

  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 = 3.1455 Malaysian ringgit)