KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third straight day on Monday as a spike in crude oil prices continued to stoke demand for the tropical oil, although disappointing export data for the first half of the month capped gains.

Exports of Malaysian palm products for June 1-15 fell 7.8 per cent to 589,748 tonnes from a month earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another cargo surveyor showed exports fell 8.3pc for the same period. “Crude oil is very high, certainly it will encourage biodiesel activity,” said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage.

The benchmark Sep­tem­­­ber contract on the Bursa Malaysia Deriva­t­ives Exchange had edged up 0.1pc to 2,428 ringgit ($753) per tonne by Monday’s close, with prices trading between 2,420 and 2,445 ringgit. Total traded volume stood at 50,012 lots of 25 tonnes, much higher than the average 12,500 lots.—Reuters

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2014