Palm oil up nearly 1 percent on stronger export data

Malaysian palm oil futures rose nearly 1 percent on Wednesday, rebounding from a sharp drop in the previous session, as strong export data from a cargo surveyor supported market gains. Palm oil was up earlier on a weaker ringgit and gains in crude oil prices.
Weakness in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically lends support to the vegetable oil by making it cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. The ringgit weakened against the dollar on Wednesday morning, but was last up 0.1 percent at 4.0020 against the dollar.
The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.96 percent at 2,622 ringgit ($655.17) a tonne at the close of trade, a third session of gains in four. It had declined 1.1 percent on Tuesday, its sharpest fall in nearly three weeks.
Trading volumes stood at 55,050 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening. "The market rose on the export data," said a trader from Kuala Lumpur.
The trader was referring to data released in the evening by cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance, which showed Malaysian palm oil exports rising 12.2 percent during Jan. 1-10 compared with the corresponding period last month. Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, reported in early trade that exports in the same period fell 1.4 percent month-on-month.
In other related edible oils, the March soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade gained 0.2 percent, while May soyabean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.4 percent. The Dalian January palm oil contract declined 0.3 percent.
Palm oil tracks the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. Earlier in the day, industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board reported that palm oil stocks in Malaysia rose 7 percent on the month to a more than two-year high of 2.7 million tonnes at end-December.
Production fell 5.6 percent on the month to 1.8 million tonnes, while exports edged up 4.9 percent to 1.4 million tonnes.