Malaysian palm oil jumps

Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed 1.7 percent higher on Monday, boosted by rising soybean oil and fresh buying. But traders said gains were capped by June exports numbers. The benchmark September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange finished up 41 ringgit to 2,468 ringgit ($719) a tonne after hitting a high of 2,490 ringgit.
"Players are coming back into the palm oil market because of the big gains in soybean oil on Friday," said a trader. "This has sparked off fresh buying." Another said: "However, the market has not gone so high as export numbers over the weekend were not very encouraging since it went below the psychological barrier of a million tonnes."
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products in June fell 15.8 percent to 991,620 tonnes from the 1,178,086 tonnes shipped in May, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Saturday. Another surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports during the month fell 15 percent to 1,007,424 tonnes.
Other traded months rose between 15 and 50 ringgit in overall trade of 11,020 lots of 25 tonnes each. But palm oil is nearly 11 percent off a historic high of 2,764 ringgit reached last month as worries of a stock build-up due to weakening exports persist.
September palm oil on Singapore's Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange climbed 2.5 percent to $718.00 a tonne with distant months moving higher in dull trade. Soy futures at the Chicago Board of Trade surged 5 percent on Friday following the release of a bullish soy plantings number from the US Department of Agriculture, traders said.
Soyoil also followed soybeans higher and ended up 0.99 at 1.12 cents, with July up 1.06 at 36.63 cents per lb. In electronic trading during Asian hours, the July contract made a further gain of 0.32 cent at 36.95 cents per lb by 1041 GMT. Soyoil usually lends support to the palm oil market due to common use in products ranging from lipstick to confectioneries and biofuels.
In Malaysia's physical market, crude palm oil for July shipment in the southern region was quoted at 2,600/2,610 ringgit a tonne. Trades were done between 2,590 and 2,600.