Palm rises to highest in five months on weaker ringgit, stronger soyoil

Malaysian palm oil futures reversed earlier losses to rise to their highest in nearly five months on Wednesday evening, charting a fourth day of gains, on a weaker ringgit and tracking gains in U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The market had earlier declined on overnight weakness in crude oil prices and profit booking by investors.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.9 per cent to 2,283 ringgit ($552.12) a tonne at the close of trade.

It earlier rose as much as 1.1 percent to 2,288 ringgit, its strongest levels since September 6.

Trading volumes stood at 33,984 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.

"Strong externals and the weaker ringgit were supportive of the market," said a Kuala Lumpur based futures trader, referring to CBOT soyoil.

The ringgit, palm's traded currency, weakened as much as 0.2 percent against the dollar on Wednesday, making it cheaper for foreign buyers. The ringgit was last down 0.1 per cent at 4.1350.

Although the market was earlier down, another futures trader had said it could firm up as palm oil export data so far showed rising demand.

Malaysian palm oil shipments during January 1-20 rose in the range of 9-13 per cent from a month earlier, according to cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services, AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Societe Generale de Surveillance.

In related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil contract rose 0.6 per cent on Wednesday, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was slightly up 0.04 percent.

Meanwhile, the Dalian January palm oil contract gained 0.3 per cent.

Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in soyoil rates, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.