SINGAPORE, June 29: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended higher on Friday after European leaders agreed on measures to tackle the region’s debt crisis, easing concern over global economic growth and commodity demand.

But palm oil still posted a 12 percent quarterly loss, the worst since the first quarter of 2011. For the week, prices rose 2.3 per cent on dry weather concerns in the United States.

“On the fundamentals side, the tight supply situation is supporting the prices as currently the US is facing a weather risk for corn and soy,” said Ker Chung Yang, commodities analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

Benchmark September palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.7 per cent to close at 3,020 ringgit ($952) per ton.

Traded volumes stood at 26,707 lots of 25 tons each, slightly higher than the usual 25,000 lots.

Palm oil demand remains healthy with Malaysian exports showing a steady improvement for the first 25 days of June compared to a month ago. Traders expect exports for the full month to go higher on restocking ahead of holy month of Ramazan. —Reuters