KUALA LUMPUR: Palm oil futures rose more than 1 per cent in trade on Tuesday, earlier tracking gains in rival oilseed soy and supported by bullish sentiment on tight market supplies in the evening.

It was little affected by an industry group forecast of rising production this year as the market has already factored this in, traders said.

Palm oil output may rise by 12pc this year to 19.4m tonnes from 17.4m tonnes in 2016, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said at a conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Benchmark palm oil futures for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had risen 1.6pc to 3,159 ringgit a tonne by the end of the trading session. Traded volumes stood at 38,068 lots of 25 tonnes each.

Published in Dawn January 18th, 2017