27/12/2017 (The Edge Markets MY) - KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 27): Malaysian palm oil futures were up over 1% on Wednesday evening, hitting their highest in more than a week on a rise in exports and tracking stronger related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.5% at RM2,538 (US$621.91) a tonne at the close of trade, its third consecutive day of gains.

It earlier rose to RM2,541, its strongest level since Dec. 18.

Trading volumes stood at 31,509 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening.

"Soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange are up," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

"This month's exports have also come up marginally from being down earlier," he said, adding that market expectations of lower production for the full month of December added to the market's gains.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Dec. 1-25 rose about 1% from a month earlier, data released by cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services (ITS) and Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) showed on Tuesday.

This compares with a 16-22% decline during the Dec. 1-10 period versus the previous month.

Production, however, is seen declining until the first quarter of next year in line with the seasonal trend. It last declined 3.3% to 1.94 million tonnes in November.

Palm oil prices are also impacted by movements in other edible oils, as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market.

The March soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.3%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.7%.

In other related edible oils, the Dalian January palm oil contract rose 1.1%.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices as of 1040 GMT

Contract                       Month      Last      Change    Low       High        Volume

MY PALM OIL              JAN8       2474      +36.00    2443       2474            320

MY PALM OIL              FEB8       2514      +39.00    2475       2514          2387

MY PALM OIL              MAR8          25      +38.00    2503       2541        19744

CHINA PALM OLEIN   MAY8       5232      +58.00    5192       5250      310280

CHINA SOYOIL           MAY8       5706      +40.00    5656       5718      284632

CBOT SOY OIL           MAR8       33.53     +0.07      33.37     33.59         7847

INDIA PALM OIL          DEC7       556.80   +0.70    556.00        558           175

INDIA SOYOIL             JAN8            724    +0.40    722.75    726.5        18980

NYMEX CRUDE          FEB8        59.59      -0.38      59.48    59.93        77860

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne

CBOT soy oil in US 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 US dollars per barrel

(US$1 = RM4.0810)

(US$1 = 64.1425 Indian rupees)

(US$1 = 6.5560 Chinese yuan)