26/05/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures edged up on Friday on rising exports  ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in July, although investors were still cautious on lingering fear over the euro zone debt crisis.

Concern about global growth and a failure by European policymakers to make any significant breakthroughs in resolving the debt crisis have weighed on palm oil this week, which hit its lowest in 2012 on Wednesday.  

But firm demand from India and Pakistan for Ramadan, where fasting in the day is followed by feasting in the evening, lifted palm futures to erase losses and post a 1.1 percent gain this week.  

"The market is consolidating after the excellent export numbers on festival buying and most of the negative news has already been priced in," said a trader with a commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"The market is anticipating a pull-back in the 3,090-3,130 ringgit range in the near term."

The benchmark August palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 2 percent to close at 3,130 ringgit ($993) per tonne. Prices touched 2,993 ringgit on Wednesday, the lowest in 2012.

Traded volumes stood at 35,239 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 25,000 lots.

Palm oil will revisit a low of 2,993 ringgit as a downtrend from 3,514 ringgit has not ended, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao based on technical analysis.

Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services reported a 10.5 percent jump in Malaysian palm oil exports for May 1-25 to 1,146,406 tonnes, compared with just slightly over a million tonnes a month ago.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, also reported higher exports for the first 25 days of the month.

On the supply side, traders are watching dry U.S weather that could hurt the soybean crop and the possibility of a return of the El Nino weather pattern that could curb palm oil output in Southeast Asia.

Brent crude oil gained on Friday, supported by a lack of progress in nuclear negotiations with Iran, returning to fears over supply if tension over Iran's nuclear programme intensified.

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for July climbed 0.9 percent while the most active Dalian soyoil September contract rose 0.2 percent.             

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1006 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JUN2    3100   +40.00    3030    3120     489
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    3130   +57.00    3043    3151    4421
  MY PALM OIL      AUG2    3130   +61.00    3040    3149   21931
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    7942   +58.00    7856    7948  233862
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP2    9112   +22.00    9060    9130  228642
  CBOT SOY OIL     JUL2   49.89    +0.47   49.20   50.08   11823
  NYMEX CRUDE      JUL2   91.07    +0.41   90.20   91.32   18529

  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=3.151 ringgit)