SINGAPORE, March 31: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended higher on Friday despite a strenthening ringgit as traders covered short positions at lower levels hoping for some overseas demand to emerge in coming weeks.

But traders discounted any big sales to India after New Delhi announced a cut in base import prices on edible ols, saying that the reduction for soy oil was bigger than that for palm oil.

There’s always a feel-good factor when India reduces the base import price for palm oil but I don’t think we will benefit a lot from these changes, said one Malaysian palm oil trader.

New Delhi said in a notification the base import price for crude palm oil had been reduced to $430 a ton from $434. For crude soybean oil, it had been cut to $524 per ton from $537.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said exports of Malaysian oil palm products for March 1-31 rose almost 15 per cent to 1,057,879 tons s from 920,806 tons in February. Earlier in the day, another cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services reported a 10 per cent rise in exports in March.

We saw some short covering towards the end of the session, said another trader. Some buyers were keen at lower levels.

The benchmark third-month June contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended 3 ringgit higher at 1,437 ringgit ($390.3) a ton. Other traded months were down 2 ringgit to up 3 ringgit. Volume for the June contract was 2,055 lots of 25 tons each. Earlier in the day, traders has said the market had remained subdued in the past few sessions because of an absence of demand from key buyers, India, China and Pakistan.

In addition to rising production, traders said there could be downward pressure in coming weeks on the market because of a strengthening ringgit against the dollar, which makes Malaysian palm oil more expensive for overseas buyers.

We are expecting prices in the physical market to remain in the range of 1,390 and 1,420 in the next few weeks, said one trader.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board said this month the country’s February palm oil output rose 12.31 pc to 1,051,900 tons from a month earlier.—Reuters