JAKARTA, Nov 24: Malaysian palm futures closed nearly 2 per cent higher on Monday on hopes that demand will rise ahead of the Chinese New Year festival early next year, traders said.

Palm oil sustained its gains in late trade, shrugging off a weaker turn in crude oil, as traders focused on hopes for improvements in market fundamentals, they said.

There was also speculation that Malaysian palm oil exports figures for Nov. 1-25 due out on Tuesday will show an increase from the same period of the preceding month.

The benchmark February palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange closed 28 ringgit, or 1.92 per cent higher, at 1,488 ringgit ($410) per ton.

Other traded contracts rose between 11 ringgit and 39 ringgit. The overall volume stood at 11,717 lots of 25 tons each.

US light crude for January delivery was down 29 cents to $49.64 by 1038 GMT in Asian trading, coming off an earlier high of $51.34.

The analyst said the supply and demand situation should now favour palm oil. Stronger exports coupled with falling production in the next two to three months should reduce the stock levels.

The analyst said he shared Goldman Sachs’ view that palm prices were near bottom after losing about two thirds from a record high.

In Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, the state marketing centre said it had sold 7,500 tons of crude palm oil out of 11,500 tons it offered, at a top price of 5,329 rupiah ($0.442), up from 5,160 rupiah on Friday.

Producers in Medan -- home to Belawan port, Indonesia’s key port for palm oil exports -- did not hold an auction on Monday.

Meanwhile, refiners in Jakarta sold refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm olein, which is used in cooking oil, at about 5,800 rupiah per kg, up from 5,700 rupiah on Friday.—Reuters