KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose in the first-half of Wednesday's trading session on expectations of slowing production growth, on track to chart a third straight session of gains.
The benchmark third-month palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange climbed 0.47 percent to 2,141 ringgit ($525.40) a tonne, reversing most of last week'slosses.
Palm oil dropped 2.8 percent last week.
"The futures seem to be riding on expectations of slower growth in production," a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said, citing updates from plantations.
A bumper harvest last year in both Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's major producers, had flushed the market with palm oil and dampened prices.
Stockpile concerns were further fanned after the European Union announced plans to phase out use of palm oil in renewable transport fuel by 2030.
Another trader said the futures could dip tracking softer rival oilseed and energy prices, as the palm oil price has hit resistance levels.
"Palm oil may retrace to 2,094 ringgit per tonne, following its failure to break a resistance at 2,142 ringgit," Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals said. The Chicago soybean oil was last down 0.3 percent.
The Dalian Commodity Exchange soyoil contract was unchanged, while palm olein contract was last up 0.5 percent.
Malaysian palm oil products exports for the March 1 - 20period fell 2.3 percent to 908,718 tonnes from 929,856 tonnes shipped a month earlier, independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia said on Wednesday.
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