KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Friday following two days of declines to notch up a weekly gain as the rainy season was expected to curb yields, although sluggish export demand capped gains.

“For November we are seeing a drop between 8 and 10 per cent in crude palm oil output,” a trader with a local commodities brokerage in Malaysia said.

“But the bearish factors are the uncertainty of crude oil prices and a record crop in South America. And demand for palm olein is bad, especially in the month of December,” the trader added. The benchmark February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.5pc at 2,239 ringgit ($668) per tonne by Friday’s close. The weekly gain was 1.4pc.

Total traded volume on Friday amounted to 33,736 lots of 25 tonnes, below the usual 35,000 lots.

Published in Dawn, November 22th , 2014