Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a one-week high on Tuesday, supported by positive export data, a weak ringgit and dry weather conditions. The benchmark December palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended up 1.5 percent by the close, at 2,183 ringgit ($508) a tonne.
Prices earlier touched 2,201 ringgit, their highest since September 15, and have now gained 10 percent so far this month.
"The market is up strongly on the back of good exports, a weak ringgit and adversity of weather conditions," said a trader with a commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"Production is coming down, exports are going up, ringgit is coming down - everything is pointing to friendly factors in the market," he said, adding that prices could hit as high as 2,250 ringgit per tonne this week.
Traded volume stood at 52,448 lots of 25 tonnes each, well above the average 35,000 lots usually traded at the close.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for September 1-20 rose 13.3 percent, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said after Monday's close.
Earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services (ITS) said on Monday that exports of Malaysian palm oil products for September 1-20 rose 7.6 percent.
There is a growing consensus among weather forecasters for a strong El Nino this year, with some climate experts warning that it could turn into one of the strongest on record.
Palm oil prices remain near the two-week lows, however, at 2,088 ringgit touched on Monday.
In related news, Indonesia's demand for fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) for biodiesel will soar to 5.14 million kiloliters in 2016, up more than four-fold from 1.2 million kiloliters in 2015, the CEO at state-owned energy company Pertamina, told reporters.
In competing vegetable oil markets, the most active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.6 percent, while the US December soyoil contract eased 0.6 percent in late Asian trading.
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