The benchmark April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 1.8 percent, or 44 ringgit to 2,488 ringgit ($737.4) after dropping to 2,407 ringgit - a level not seen since November 19. Trading volumes nearly doubled to 18,081 lots of 25 tonnes each. But other traders say there may be some momentum to push the market towards its 200-day moving average of 2,354 ringgit on high stocks, weak export growth and the rising US dollar.
Stocks in Malaysia, the world's No 2 palm oil producer, usually fall from December onwards but plantations in top producer Indonesia shipped cargoes over the last month to escape a 3 percent export tax that was introduced in January. Other vegetable oil markets were mixed. US soyoil rose on technical buying in Asian trading hours after losses from the previous day. The most-active September soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange edged higher.
INDONESIAN PALM TRADES In Indonesia, Jakarta-based PT KBN Nusantara, formerly known as the state marketing centre, sold all 2,500 tonnes of palm oil at 6,988 rupiah ($0.753) per kg against a top price of 7,074 rupiah on Wendesday. Producers in Medan, home to Indonesia's main palm oil export port of Belawan, sold palm oil at 7,080-7,110 rupiah per kg on Thursday. Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, sold at 7,600 rupiah per kg against 7,750 rupiah per kg a day ago.