KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22: Malaysian palm oil futures ended up for the third straight day after an overnight surge in Chicago soyoil powered a market already chugging along on strong export figures.

The market saw a choppy morning as some traders took profits while others hoped the bull run, begun last Friday on strong export estimates for October, would carry on.

But the rally lost steam in its late session, and action slowed before the benchmark third-month January futures closed 14 ringgit up at 1,460 ringgit ($384) a ton, off the day’s high of 1,463.

Volume was at 6,820 lots, with nearly 80 per cent of it achieved in the morning.

Dealers said the market was helped by higher prices of soyaoil, palm oil’s main rival.

Soyaoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Monday, aided by planting delays to the Brazilian soy crop and a firm US cash market.

CBOT soyaoil settled 0.02 to 0.14 cent per lb higher, its highest close in over a month.

Refined-bleached-deodorised palm olein, known by its market jargon as RBD palm olein, was currently trading at a discount of around $70 a ton against crude degummed soyaoil, its main competing product, local traders said.

The worldwide fundamentals for palm oil is still good, said a dealer.

The market was unruffled by reports that India, the world’s largest edible oils consumer, was not buying the huge quantities of oil it usually does ahead of the Hindu Diwali festival, which falls on November 4 this year.

Indian oils traders said on Tuesday the country was expected to continue taking in its usual monthly volume of 85,000 tons of edible oil in October and November, compared to the 900,000 usually seen during the two months leading to Diwali.

There are not too many worries in the market about Indian buying now as the slack is being taken up by China and other buyers, said a palm oil trader.

Some players are betting that Malaysian palm oil exports in October may be close to the 1.07 million tons achieved last month and are awaiting fresh shipment estimates from the market’s two cargo surveyors to confirm this.—Reuters