09/11/2017 (DAWN.com) - KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures jumped to a one week top on Wednesday evening, charting a second straight day of gains, over concerns that rainy weather could lower production.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.3 per cent at 2,820 ringgit ($666.98) a tonne at the close of trade, its strongest daily gain in over two weeks.

It earlier rose to an intraday high of 2,825 ringgit, its highest level since Nov 2. Traded volumes stood at 47,451 lots of 25 tonnes each in the evening.

“The market rose on a weather play,” said a Kuala Lumpur based futures trader. The year-end monsoon rains could lower production as heavy rains may disrupt the harvesting process.

 Production in Malaysia, the second largest palm producer after Indonesia, is forecast to rise in October by 9.4pc to 1.95m tonnes, a Reuters survey showed.

Official data from industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board is scheduled for release on Friday.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2017