CORRECTED-VEGOILS-Palm Ends Lower on Stronger Ringgit, but Posts 2nd Weekly Rise
* Strong ringgit at 3.5820 per dollar drags on prices
* Palm up 0.5 pct this week in 2nd straight weekly rise
* Palm oil signals mixed - technicals
24/04/2015 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures failed to hold on to early gains and ended lower on Friday due to a strong ringgit, but anticipation over firm demand limited losses and lifted the tropical oil to its second straight weekly rise.
The benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange closed 0.2 percent lower at 2,154 ringgit ($601) a tonne, with prices trading between 2,144 and 2,176 ringgit.
Palm, the world's most traded vegetable oil was trapped in a rangebound trade for most of the week, with sentiment mixed on rising supplies and a strong local currency, alongside a recovery in demand.
"The ringgit is really strong and there's higher output coming. This should push prices lower, faster, but it's not really coming down," said one trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"People are confused ... and palm closed lower in directionless trading."
The Malaysian ringgit jumped 1.2 percent to 3.5820 per U.S. dollar by 1024 GMT on Friday, making the ringgit-priced feedstock more expensive for overseas customers.
Despite the prospect of higher crude palm production in Malaysia, the world's second-largest grower, investors are looking for the increase in supplies to be soaked up by export demand from key buyers India and China.
The benchmark contract nudged up 0.5 percent for the week, marking its second straight weekly rise.
Total traded volume stood at 52,343 lots of 25 tonnes on Friday, much higher than the usual 35,000 lots.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Association, a group of planters, estimated that output rose 17 percent from April 1-20 compared with the same period in March, in line with the tropical plant's seasonal output cycle.
Market players are also keeping watch on a truckers' strike in Brazil, which could delay shipments of rival soybeans.
Brazilian truckers blocked roads across the country's main farm belts on Thursday after negotiations with the government and freight companies over pay and fuel prices failed.
In other vegetable oil markets, the U.S. July soyoil contract lost 0.4 percent in late Asian trade, while the
most active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was nearly flat.
Brent crude looked set to finish the week near 2015 highs on Friday as air strikes in Yemen stoked concerns over the security of Middle East oil shipments.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1027 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL MAY5 2166 -8.00 2157 2184 798
MY PALM OIL JUN5 2163 -6.00 2151 2183 6103
MY PALM OIL JUL5 2154 -4.00 2144 2176 27461
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 4868 -30.00 4860 4930 940678
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5672 +2.00 5646 5744 1205596
CBOT SOY OIL JUL5 32.10 -0.30 32.09 32.39 10659
INDIA PALM OIL APR5 442.60 -0.30 440.60 446.10 425
INDIA SOYOIL JUN5 593.40 -0.30 590.00 596.50 43205
NYMEX CRUDE JUN5 57.50 -0.24 57.34 57.95 30954
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.5820 Malaysian ringgit)
($1 = 6.1950 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 63.62 Indian rupees)