08/05/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures ended higher on last-minute buying on Monday, reversing losses from an 8-week low as election results in Greece and France threatened to undermine austerity measures aimed at preventing the euro zone debt crisis from spreading.

French voters ousted incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a presidential election on Sunday while the first Greek election since the euro zone debt crisis threatened to put the country's bailout programme at risk.

But concerns of the market being oversold after hitting a low at 3,311 ringgit -- a level last seen on March 12 -- prompted traders to go bargain hunting after the midday break.

"Looking at the overall scenario, the market has potentially penciled in all the possible bearish sentiments, so we anticipate a recovery in prices soon," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Malaysia. 

Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange inched up 0.1 percent to close at 3,360 ringgit ($1,101) per tonne.

Traded volumes stood at 23,092 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly lower than the usual 25,000 lots.

Palm oil will fall to 3,253 ringgit per tonne based on technical analysis, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao, adding that the contract may hover around 3,325 ringgit on Monday and plunge to 3,253 ringgit on Tuesday.

Yet palm oil fundamentals look healthy as the latest export data showed that shipments jumped by almost 10 percent, signalling robust demand for the edible oil from Asia.

Market players have shifted their focus to Malaysian exports for the first 10 days of May, in which an improvement could boost demand outlook for the edible oil.   

High exports last month could have pushed palm oil stocks to a one-year low despite the higher production growth, a Reuters median survey showed on Monday.

Industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board will issue official data on output and stocks on Thursday.

Oil dropped to four-month lows below $113 a barrel on Monday, on worries that election results in Europe could thwart the single currency's drive to contain its debt crisis, and after weak U.S. jobs data prompted concern about oil demand growth.  

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for July was almost flat while the most active

Dalian soyoil September contract fell by 1.0 percent.  

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1019 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      MAY2    3350   -15.00    3350    3365       1
  MY PALM OIL      JUN2    3369    +3.00    3321    3370    1529
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    3360    +2.00    3311    3365   14940
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    8540   -90.00    8510    8586  130218
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP2    9666   -94.00    9636    9704  374212
  CBOT SOY OIL     JUL2   53.67    +0.02   53.30   53.72    9389
  NYMEX CRUDE      JUN2   97.75    -0.74   95.34   98.24   45303

  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 = 3.05 ringgit)