RTRS:VEGOILS-Palm oil gains 1 percent, buoyed by exports
* Export data and expectations spur palm oil
* Palm prices to trade in 2,800-2,900 range -trader
* Volatility expected due to uncertain macro outlook
By Michael Taylor
JAKARTA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
climbed to a near two-week high on Friday, supported by positive
export expectations and other edible oils, although gains were
capped by the uncertain economic outlook.
Benchmark December palm oil futures FCPOc3 on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives Exchange traded up 0.7 percent at 2,864
Malaysian ringgit ($912) a tonne.
Traded volumes were thin at 2,679 lots of 25 tonnes each,
versus 8,095 lots on Thursday.
Palm prices, which have gained around 3 percent this week,
hit a peak at 2,870 ringgit earlier on Friday.
Supporting prices this week has been strong export data,
which came at a time of positive demand expectations ahead of
re-stocking efforts in Pakistan, and Indian buying ahead of
Diwali at the end of the month.
Investors were also positioning themselves ahead of
Malaysian export numbers due on Saturday from cargo surveyor
Intertek Testing Services.
"Little direction but slightly higher," said a Kuala
Lumpur-based trader. "Tomorrow's exports should be slightly
higher than last month, and then you have the Dalian up.
"Yesterday there was a bit of profit-taking, so today the
market adjusts up again."
He added that he expected prices to trade in a range of
2,800-2,900 for the next three sessions.
In a volatile trading session on Thursday, benchmark palm
prices fell after the U.S. Department of Agriculture made a
sharply higher revision to global stocks of nearly every type of
grain except U.S. soybeans.
U.S. soyoil for December delivery dipped in Asian
trade, while China's most active May 2012 soybean oil contract
<0#DBY:> rose to a two week high.
Lower soy imports for September are not going to have much
price impact because stocks in China are still quite
substantial, said Zhang Ruming, research manager at Liangyun
Futures.
He added that he expects imports to pick up from October
onwards.
Investors remain cautious about the long-term demand outlook
for commodities, due to euro zone debt problems and slowing
economic growth in China and the United States.
"In the short term, prices will still be dependent on what
happens in the macro economic space," said commodities analyst
Chen Xin Yi at Barclays Capital.
"Even if you are going to see export data being persistently
strong, the markets in general might choose to brush aside more
positive data and focus on the macro economic."
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil in Chinese yuan per tonne
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.139 ringgit)
(Additional reporting by Chew Yee Kiat in SINGAPORE, Editing by
Michael Urquhart)
