KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5: Malaysian crude palm oil futures higher on Monday, without any positive leads to push the market past the 3,000 ringgit level, traders said. Prices of palm oil, used in products ranging from confectionaries to cosmetics to biofuel, are a touch lower from their record high of 2,959 ringgit per ton struck last week.

By the midday break, the benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange inched up 13 ringgit at 2,930 ringgit ($874).

There are a lot of mixed signals in the market but nothing seems concrete, said a dealer with a foreign trading company.

Overall volume halved to 6,922 lots of 25 tons each from 12,000 lots that usually change hands on a routine trading day.

Players are now looking towards the kind of effect these high prices are going to have on demand, said another trader with a local brokerage.

October’s exports were strong despite the high prices but in November, it may be different because it’s usually a low month for exports because most of Asian festivals have ended.

Later, news of rival producer Indonesia raising export taxes and talk of China slashing import duties for edible oils, as well as the strength of crude and soyaoil markets, gave palm oil new momentum, pushing prices to record highs.

Oil prices fell more than 1 per cent on Monday, dragged down by fears of the potential for economic fallout in the United States from a worsening subprime crisis and by easing tensions in the Middle East.

In Asian trade on Monday, the December contract gained 0.03 cent to 42.67 cents.

Palm oil and soyaoil increasingly track movements in the crude oil market because of growing demand for both commodities as feedstock for biodiesel.

The most active May contract for refined palm oil futures on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.7 per cent to 8,600 yuan ($1,154).

January palm oil on Singapore’s Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange was untraded.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for November shipment in the southern region was quoted at 2,950/2,955 ringgit a ton. Trades were done at 2,945 and 2,950 ringgit.—Reuters