KUALA LUMPUR: Mal­a­y­sian palm oil futures rose 1 per cent on Friday evening, its sharpest daily gain in a week, after two sessions of declines, tracking gains in soyoil on the US Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

The 1pc rise in the benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange to 2,193 ringgit ($528.05) a tonne by the close was its strongest daily gain since October 4. In the previous session, it had hit a more than one-week low of 2,153 ringgit and is down 1.3pc for the week. Trading volumes stood at 34,137 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close.

“Palm rose on firmer soyoil,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to CBOT soyoil. Another trader said that a positive report from the US Agriculture Depar­tment was supportive for the soy and palm markets.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2018