September 19, 2006	Tuesday	Sha'aban 25, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed higher on Monday, due to a technical rebound and higher price of crude oil.

The benchmark third-month December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange ended up six ringgt at 1,550 ringgit ($421) a ton after trading in a narrow range of 1,543 to 1,554 ringgit.

Other traded months rose between five and nine ringgit. Overall volumes stood at 3,524 lots of 25 tons each, down from around 10,000 to 12,000 lots traded on a normal day.

The November contract fell as low as 1,517 ringgit on Wednesday, its lowest in nearly two months. It finished at 1,542 ringgit on Monday.

Stocks of palm oil at the close of August totalled 1,684,046 tons, up 6.56 per cent from end-July, MPOB said. Stocks at the end of August 2005 were 1,333,868 tons.

Crude palm oil output stood at 1,537,236 tons in August, up 11.79 per cent from July, it said.

Palm oil often tracks energy prices because of a rapidly expanding bio fuel industry and Malaysia's plans to start selling palm-blended diesel at domestic pumps by the end of this year.

In the physical crude palm oil market, sellers were quoting 1,535 ringgit a ton for September shipment and buyers 1,530 ringgit.

Trades were done between 1,515 ringgit and 1,530 ringgit.—Reuters