KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to their highest in one-and-a-half months on Tuesday and recorded their biggest monthly rise in more than five years, as strong export demand and gains in Chinese soyoil markets lifted sentiment.

Despite the swift recovery in palm prices this month, underlying concerns about swelling oilseed supplies capped the rally and pulled palm to post its biggest quarterly drop in two years.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for September rose 16.3 per cent from a month earlier to 1,497,828 tonnes, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said, thanks to robust demand from India, China and Europe.

Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed that exports for the same period rose 16.5pc. Both surveyors reported bigger crude palm oil shipments compared to August. The recovery in export demand would help prevent another jump in inventories in the No.2 producer, traders said.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014