* Palm oil makes gains after two weeks of declines
* Weaker ringgit, improving exports seen supporting palm -trader

19/04/2016 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures made some gains in Monday trade, rising after two consecutive weeks of losses as a weaker ringgit and improving exports supported the market.

The palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange strengthened 1%, registering its strongest gains in three weeks to reach RM2,668 (US$680) per tonne at the close of trade.

Traded volumes were 50,507 lots of 25 tonnes each, more than a 2015 daily average of 44,600.

"It's mainly the ringgit propelling the market higher today, said a trader based in Kuala Lumpur. "But exports have also been fairly good."

The ringgit, the currency palm oil is traded in, fell 0.6% against the dollar in trade on Monday evening to reach 3.9250 on tumbling oil prices, as major producers in Qatar failed to come to an agreement to freeze output.

A weaker ringgit typically supports palm oil, as it makes the vegetable oil cheaper for foreign currency holders.

Palm oil shipments from Malaysia showed rising export demand for the first half of April, even with an export tax in place. Cargo surveyor data showed improving shipments between 7%–20% from the first half of March, lifted by demand to China and India. 

Malaysia had raised its crude palm oil export tax to 5% for April and May, ending a duty free policy held since May 2015. 

Palm oil has found support at RM2,629 per tonne and may either hover above this level or rise towards resistance at RM2,716, according to analysis by Wang Tao, Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

The September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.3%, while the May Chicago Board of Trade soyoil contract rose 0.8%.

The offer price for crude palm kernel oil stood at RM4877.71 per tonne <PKO-MYSTH-M1> in the evening, according to price assessments by Thomson Reuters.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1105 GMT:

Contract                               Month Last        Change      Low        High       Volume

MY PALM OIL                     MAY6    2654       +29.00   2631       2659       384

MY PALM OIL                     JUN6     2673       +29.00   2645       2675       14162

MY PALM OIL                     JUL6       2668       +27.00   2646       2673       21410

CHINA PALM OLEIN        SEP6      5582       +30.00   5492       5584       1142056

CHINA SOYOIL                   SEP6      6150       -14.00    6078       6156       795482

CBOT SOY OIL                    MAY6    33.62     +0.30     33.13     33.66     13822

INDIA PALM OIL               APR6     554.30   +0.30     547.10   556         1081

INDIA SOYOIL                    APR6     646         -2.20      645         647         2180

NYMEX CRUDE                 MAY6    38.93     -1.43      37.61     39.55     121275

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
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

($1 = 3.9345 ringgit)
($1 = 66.6625 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.4792 Chinese yuan)