KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures climbed to a near two-week high on Tuesday after firm export data fuelled investor hopes that a recovery in global demand for the tropical oil will underpin prices.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for the first half of April rose 8.6 per cent to 521,847 tonnes compared with a month earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said, as demand from top consumers India and China picked up.

Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed exports for the same period rose 6.7pc to 500,057 tonnes.

Market players anticipate palm oil consumption in India, Pakistan and the Middle East to climb ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at end-June, and Eid al-Fitr celebrations in July.

The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange touched 2,669 ringgit on Tuesday, its highest since April 2, before settling at 2,665 ringgit ($822) per tonne by day’s close, a 1.1pc rise.

The Kuala Lumpur-based trader added that prices of refined palm olein could climb higher in the coming months as prices of crude palm oil pick up. Refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein was trading at $860 on Tuesday.