KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose in early trade on Friday as traders forecast better exports for July, but was still set for its first weekly decline in three weeks given weakness in competing soybean oil markets.

Benchmark palm oil futures for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 1 per cent to 2,322 ringgit ($574) per tonne at the midday break.

Traded volumes stood at 16,162 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.

Friday’s session was also supported by a rebound in US soy oil prices, which competes with palm for the global vegetable oils market share.

However, palm has lost 0.9pc this week. It is also down 2.3pc for the month, weighed down by poorer performing related oils on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange during July.

“US soy is higher, but (the market) could also be anticipating higher exports,” said a trader from Kuala Lumpur, referring to export data from cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance. “The current overseas market alone is not strong enough to sustain the upside.”

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016