RTRS:VEGOILS-Palm oil hits 2-week high on exports, soy
* Export data and expectations spur palm oil
* Volatility expected due to global economic uncertainty
(Recasts, updates throughout, adds comment/detail)
By Michael Taylor
JAKARTA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
extended gains to hit a two-week high on Friday and posted a
near 5 percent increase this week, as a positive export outlook
and expectations of Chinese soy re-stocking, offset economic
uncertainty.
Benchmark December palm oil futures FCPOc3 on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed up 2.2 percent at 2,906
Malaysian ringgit ($925) a tonne.
Traded volumes were 10,894 lots of 25 tonnes each, versus
8,095 lots on Thursday.
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."
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.
China, the world's biggest agricultural products consumer,
has swooped in to import copious amounts of corn and soy
products from the United States and elsewhere this week, and
analysts anticipate further buying.
"Traders and analysts are expecting that China may return to
the U.S. soy market before the end of the year," said Ker Chung
Yang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore. "There
will be some spill over affect into palm oil."
U.S. soyoil for December delivery rose to its highest
level in more than two weeks during Asian trade, while China's
most active May 2012 soybean oil contract <0#DBY:> rose to
similar highs.
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
Ramthan Hussain)
