Palm rebounds from one-week low on stronger demand, technical buying

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rebounded in early trade on Wednesday from a one-week low hit in the previous session, supported by a stronger export outlook and on technical buying.

The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.22 percent at 2,700 ringgit ($640.72) a tonne at the midday break.

Traded volumes stood at 16,773 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break on Wednesday.

"The market came off a lot yesterday, so its just a technical rebound," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur.

Another trader added that expectations of stronger export demand contributed to palm's morning gains.

"Exports overall could remain strong in the near term ... India may gear up purchases to cover some of the shortfall," he added, as stock levels at the world's largest vegetable oil consumer are low.

Palm oil shipments from Malaysia during October 1-10 rose 18.1 percent versus the corresponding period last month, data from cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services showed.

Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed a 16.5 percent gain, due to rising demand from Europe, China and India.

In other related edible oils, the December soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.2 percent, while the January soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.5 percent.

The January palm olein contract declined 0.1 percent.