KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a seven-week high on Thursday evening, tracking gains in US soyoil and supported by a weaker ringgit.
Palm oil prices typically rise on a weaker ringgit, its currency of trade, because it makes the edible oil cheaper for foreign buyers. The ringgit weakened as much as 0.2 percent against the dollar before closing the day with a 0.03 percent gain at 3.9790.
The palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.8 percent at 2,492 ringgit ($626.29) a tonne at the end of the trading day.
It earlier climbed to 2,498 ringgit, matching the intraday high of April 9. Palm is also up 1.7 percent for the week so far, in line for a third straight week of gains.
Trading volume stood at 41,918 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close.
"The market is up on soybean oil's upside, while crude oil prices are also still holding at high levels," one Kuala Lumpur futures trader said, referring to soyoil on the US Chicago Board of Trade.
"The ringgit is also weaker and is expected to weaken further over the week on the dollar's strength."
Palm, which can be used as feedstock to produce biodiesel, has been tracking movements in crude oil prices in recent sessions.
While oil prices edged down on Thursday on the back of higher OPEC production, benchmark Brent futures are still trading at more than three-year highs of $79.
Palm oil is affected by movements in rival edible that compete in the global vegetable oils market. The Chicago July soybean oil contract gained 0.6 percent on Wednesday and was last up 1 percent on Thursday.
In other related oils, September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.3 percent, while the Dalian September palm oil contract rose by 0.4 percent.
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