Malaysian palm oil futures rose to their highest levels in over two and a half years in late trade on Thursday, supported by government data which showed lower than expected inventories for October. Benchmark palm oil futures for January on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange surged 1.7 percent to 2,894 ringgit ($678) a tonne at the end of the trading day. It earlier hit 2,903 ringgit, its highest since March 10, 2014.
Traded volumes stood at 39,739 lots of 25 tonnes each, lower than the 2015 average of 44,600 lots traded in a day. A Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader said the stocks figures from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) lifted the market in its afternoon session, as it was lower than expectations. Malaysia's palm oil stocks at end-October rose 1.8 percent to 1.57 million tonnes from September, versus a Reuters poll which forecast a 8.8 percent rise in inventories.
Output declined 2.2 percent to 1.68 million tonnes, while exports fell 1.4 percent to 1.37 million tonnes, the MPOB data showed. Another trader said the rally could continue on Friday, as "the market had broken a key psychological level of 2,900 ringgit." The December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 1.7 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.2 percent.
In other related oils, the January contract for palm olein on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.6 percent.
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