Palm gains on support from related edible oils

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose nearly 1 percent in early trade on Monday, tracking strength in related edible oils and in line for a second straight session of gains.

The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.8 percent at 2,214 ringgit ($543.31) a tonne at noon. The market earlier rose as much as 0.9 percent to 2,215 ringgit.

Trading volumes stood at 8,556 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break.

"The market is seeing support from overnight US soyoil as well as on strength in Dalian," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader.

Gains in the ringgit around noon on Monday could cap further increases in palm, another trader added.

The ringgit, palm's currency of trade, strengthened 0.1 percent to 4.0750 against the dollar at the midday break after four previous days of losses.

A stronger ringgit usually makes the tropical oil more expensive for holders of foreign currencies.

In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil contract rose 0.9 percent in Friday's session, and was last up 0.3 percent on Monday.

Meanwhile, the September soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.8 percent and the Dalian September palm oil contract was up 0.5 percent.

Palm oil prices are influenced by the performance of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.