KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures recorded their biggest daily gain in two weeks on Thursday, ending six sessions of losses as they tracked strength in soyoil and were helped by a technical correction.
The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed up 1.6 percent at 2,504 ringgit ($569.61) a tonne.
Turnover for the day totalled 64,542 lots of 25 tonnes each.
"Exports are poor, so soyoil could have helped with a technical rebound, as the market is technically oversold," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil prices are influenced by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.4 percent, while the September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.03 percent.
Palm oil exports between April 1-20 had come in weaker than expected, with traders forecasting stronger gains on the month ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Palm oil shipments from Malaysia, the world's largest producer after Indonesia, fell 1 percent during April 1-20 compared with a month earlier, according to data from cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services.
Societe Generale de Surveillance data, however, showed a 4.7 percent gain in the same period.
Ramadan typically sees higher consumption of palm oil for cooking purposes in regions such as India and the Middle East, as day-long fasts end with communal feasting.
In other related vegetable oils, the September contract for palm olein was up 0.5 percent.
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