KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures jumped to a near three-month high on Friday, charting a second day of gains, buoyed by strong crude oil prices and technical buying.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was 1.3 per cent up at 2,226 ringgit ($541.61) a tonne at the close. It was earlier as high as 2,228 ringgit, its strongest levels since Oct 23. Palm is up 2.4pc for the week, a second week of gains in three. Trading volumes stood at 37,341 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2019