KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5: Malaysian crude palm oil futures surged almost two per cent on Monday, extending last week’s strong rally as rival soyoil continued to rise.

The benchmark third-month April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange was up 1.8 percent, or 35 ringgit, at 1,952 ringgit ($558) a ton.

“Palm oil is getting support from soybean oil, which is very strong,” one dealer said.

Other traded contracts rose between 31 and 50 ringgit. Overall volumes stood at 15,027 lots of 25 tons each.

The third-month contract jumped 2.3 per cent last week on the firm soyoil market. But benchmark palm oil is still off eight-year highs of 2,062 ringgit reached in December, when floods disrupted deliveries.

The Chicago Board of Trade soybean market rose to 1-year high on Friday in a technical rally, spurred by the strength in soyoil, which hit its highest point in 2- years. In electronic trading during Asian hours on Monday, March soyoil was up 0.30 cent to 30.67 cents per lb.

Palm oil often tracks soybean oil because both commodities find use in products from food and cosmetics to biodiesel.

In the physical crude palm oil market, February shipment in the southern region was quoted at 1,950/1,955 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 1,945 and 1,950 ringgit.

Dealers said the futures market had ignored news of weak palm oil exports in January.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products in January fell 20 per cent to 952,753 tons from 1,198,976 shipped in December, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports during the same period fell 19.1 per cent to 957,228 tons.—Reuters