KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22: Malaysian crude palm futures rose on Thursday, just a whisker from record highs as investors started buying on expectations that crude and rival soyaoil prices will gain momentum after the U.S Thanksgiving holiday.

Trade was volatile all day, with palm oil prices moving above the 3,000 ringgit level, prompting some financial players to cash in profits quickly.

Palm oil, which increasingly takes direction from the energy markets due to its use as feedstock for biofuel, hit a record peak of 3,013 ringgit two weeks ago.

The February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange inched up 0.7 per cent, or 22 ringgit at 2,992 ringgit ($885) ton, after going as high as 3,001 ringgit.

Trade is rather thin and any buying activity is always bound to inflate prices, said a trader with a foreign brokerage.

Right now, investors are bullish on the idea that crude and soyaoil are going to smash records and palm oil is coming for the ride.” Other traded months rose between 4 and 22 ringgit. Overall trade stood at 8,735 lots of 25 tons each.

Oil steadied above $97 a barrel on Thursday, after falling just shy of the $100 milestone the previous session, as the dollar tumbled to fresh record lows.

January delivery eased five cents at $97.24 a barrel by 1033 GMT. Oil briefly surged to a lifetime peak of $99.29 a barrel on Wednesday, before settling 74 cents lower.

The commodity is up nearly 50 per cent this year and demand from the food and biodiesel sectors has not quite diminished.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products during Nov. 1-20 rose 5.8 per cent to 925,104 tons from 874,276 tons shipped between Oct. 1 and 20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another cargo surveyor Societe General de Surveillance said exports in the same period rose 9.2 per cent to 950,983 tons.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for November shipment in the southern region was quoted at 2,990/3,000 ringgit a ton. Trades were between 2,980 and 3,000 ringgit.—Reuters