BANGKOK, May 26: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed up on Thursday on follow-through buying, dealers said. The Bursa Malaysia Derivatives’ benchmark third-month palm oil contract, August, was up 10 ringgit at 1,402 ringgit a ton ($368.94). The day’s high was 1,408 ringgit, while the low was 1,396. Other traded months settled up 10 to 13 ringgit.

Overall volume stood at 5,669 lots of 25 tons each. Wednesday’s business totalled 3,508 lots. The market usually sees 6,000 lots or more on a busy day. Today was the follow through. The market followed soyaoil market that had been going up for the past four days, said one Malaysian dealer. I believe the market still has a room to go higher. Soyaoil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) ended mostly up in electronic trade on Thursday, with the August contract settling up 0.07 cents to 23.40 cents a pound.

Soya and palm compete for similar export destinations but their prices often move in step.—Reuters