"Palm oil has been getting good support from a rebound in crude oil and soyoil prices," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

"The strengthening Malaysian ringgit is limiting the upside."

The Malaysian currency firmed 0.5 percent versus the dollar, making the tropical oil which is priced in the ringgit expensive for holders of other currencies.

Traded volume stood at 8,294 lots of 25 tonnes each, significantly below the roughly 13,500 lots usually traded by midday.

"Volumes were thin since people want to know what key analysts and producers say in the conference," said the trader, referring to the Palm and Lauric Oils Outlook Conference in Kuala Lumpur from March 7 to 9.

Palm oil may break a resistance at 2,538 ringgit per tonne, and rise into a range of 2,559-2,580 ringgit, said Wang Tao, Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.41 percent, while the Chicago soyoil contract rose 0.55 percent.

Oil prices jumped on Monday, extending a rally that has lifted crude benchmarks by more than a third from this year's lows, as tightening supply and an improving global outlook strengthened the sentiment for a market recovery.

"Rebound in crude oil can help palm oil producing countries like Indonesia in increasing biofuel usage," said another Kuala Lumpur-based trader.
   
  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0553 GMT
                                                                
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      MAR6       0    +0.00       0       0       0
  MY PALM OIL      APR6    2526   +33.00    2513    2526     102
  MY PALM OIL      MAY6    2540   +33.00    2520    2543    6339
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY6    5120  +100.00    5008    5168 1130666
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY6    5732   +76.00    5660    5760  458118
  CBOT SOY OIL     MAY6   31.16    +0.00   30.89   31.20    5195
  INDIA PALM OIL   MAR6    0.00    +0.00    0.00    0.00       0
  INDIA SOYOIL     MAR6    0.00    +0.00    0.00    0.00       0
  NYMEX CRUDE      APR6   36.60    +0.68   36.18   36.72   25921
                                                                
  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
  India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
  Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 ($1 = 4.0880 ringgit)