February 14, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 15, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed slightly higher on Monday, rebounding from a weak start caused by soft prices of rival US soyaoil. The benchmark third-month crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, April, ended up one ringgit at 1,467 ringgit ($393.93) a ton after trading as low as 1,460.

Overall volume stood at 6,312 lots of 25 tons each.

SGS had put Jan. 1-15 exports at 463,128 tons. Dealers were betting on between 480,000 and 510,000 tons for Feb. 1-15.

Soyaoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were down, dampening trade in Malaysian palm oil at the open.

CBOT March soyaoil fell 0.38 cent a lb to 22.27 cents at Friday’s close. In Monday’s e-CBOT session, conducted during Asian hours, the contract fell another 0.25 cent.

In physical trade of crude palm oil, February quotes stood at 1,455/1,460 ringgit a ton in Malaysia’s southern and central regions.

Trades were done at 1,450-1,455 ringgit for both regions.

—Reuters