21/04/2012 (Reuter) - Malaysian palm oil futures reversed earlier losses to end higher on Friday on last minute buying, although traders remained wary over the weak global economy and slowing export data. 

Buying surged in the last half hour of trading and some traders said this was due to the weak performance this week that prompted investors to close out their short positions to book profits.  

Despite closing higher on Friday, palm oil still recorded a slight 0.3 percent weekly loss as investors were held back by disappointing jobless U.S. data, while worries about the euro zone persisted despite a better-than-expected Spanish bond auction.  

"The buying came in the last half an hour (of trading), we saw an obvious trend that market will close higher, and all of us were a bit apprehensive of selling," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia. 

"The market has come down for quite a while this week, so it could be those who are holding short positions just bought in to take profits." 

Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.7 percent to close at 3,500 ringgit ($1,143) per tonne. 

Traded volumes stood at 29,436 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 25,000 lots. 

Tight soybean supply in drought-hit South America remained a bullish factor for palm oil. On Thursday, Argentina's government cut its soy production estimates to more than 10 percent below last year's harvest levels.  

On the demand side, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said exports for April 1-20 fell 5.6 percent to 844,453 tonnes, in which exports for by-products such as refined palm stearin and palm fatty acid distillate were observably lower than a month ago.  

Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported a similar 5.3 percent fall in exports for the same period from a month ago.  

Oil rose back above $118 a barrel on Friday, trimming its weekly decline, as the impact of sanctions on Iranian supply countered nervousness about the euro zone debt crisis and the strength of global growth.  

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for May gained 0.4 percent and the most active Dalian soyoil September contract was up 0.2 percent, lifted by strong Chinese demand for soybeans and supply concerns in South America.     

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1032 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      MAY2    3515   +20.00    3458    3515     945
  MY PALM OIL      JUN2    3510   +21.00    3456    3513    3866
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    3500   +23.00    3444    3509   14961
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    8820    -6.00    8802    8850  166120
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP2    9876   +18.00    9838    9914  426104
  CBOT SOY OIL     MAY2   55.40    +0.25   55.08   55.44    4731
  NYMEX CRUDE      MAY2  102.99    +0.72  102.45  103.03    1933

  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=3.063 ringgit)