26/10/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a near 1-month high on Thursday on encouraging export data that showed firm demand and some short-covering ahead of a holiday weekend in parts of Asia.

Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services reported on Thursday an 11 percent jump in Malaysia's Oct. 1-25 palm exports from a month ago. Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, reported a 9 percent improvement for the same period. 

Prices posted a 4.1 percent gain for the week although some investors were still cautious, as after a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve there was no announcement of further stimulus that could boost global economic growth and commodity demand.

"At the moment, there's no cue that crude palm oil can take on the macroeconomic front. On the vegetable oils front, rising exports is something that is encouraging but that's not going to set the price trend," said Ker Chung Yang, investment analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"For the upcoming two weeks, the market will still be directionless. We have U.S. elections and MPOB (Malaysian Palm Oil Board) stocks data in early November, from now until then there's still some time and there's no main theme that palm oil can take its cue from," he added.

The benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 1 percent to close at 2,603 ringgit ($857) per tonne. Earlier, prices rose as high as 2,615 ringgit, a level last seen on Sept. 28.

Total traded volumes surged to 36,498 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared with the usual 25,000 lots.

Malaysian financial markets will be closed on Friday for the Eid al-Adha holiday. 

Palm oil prices have recovered from the near 3-year low of 2,255 ringgit they touched this month, but Malaysia's Affin Investment Bank warned in a research note that high stocks, demand risks and vulnerable sentiment could limit further price rises.    

In a bullish sign for palm oil, Brent crude oil rose above $108 per barrel on Thursday, consolidating after seven days of falls as better-than-expected data suggested the world economy was recovering, but analysts said the overall outlook for oil prices was bearish.

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for December delivery edged up 0.4 percent in late Asian trade. The most-active May 2013 soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 0.4 percent lower.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1005 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      NOV2    2500   +32.00    2445    2500     435
  MY PALM OIL      DEC2    2561   +22.00    2505    2570    3646
  MY PALM OIL      JAN3    2603   +25.00    2543    2615   21721
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY3    7242   -52.00    7240    7350  295552
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY3    9232   -38.00    9228    9300  415794
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC2   52.06    +0.23   51.52   52.23   12148
  NYMEX CRUDE      DEC2   86.35    +0.62   85.62   86.62   21113

  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=3.04 ringgit)