KUALA LUMPUR, April 10: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed higher on Monday, lifted by strong exports and falling stocks, traders said. Exports of Malaysian oil palm products for April 1-10 stood at 375,355 tons, up 30 per cent from the 288,696 shipped between March 1 and 10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Monday.

Earlier, the official Malaysian Palm Oil Board said exports in March totalled 1,179,577 tons, up 25.87 per cent from February. Stocks of palm oil at the end of March stood at 1,586,009 tons, down 3.62 per cent from February, it said.

Overall volume stood at 7,885 lots of 25 tons each.

Traders said market sentiment was also helped by India’s decision to impose new rules on imports of genetically modified foods, which is likely to hit soyaoil shipments.

The Indian government in its annual foreign trade policy on Friday made it mandatory for all genetically modified products to carry a declaration from the exporter.

India, which imports 40 per cent of its annual needs of 11 million tons of edible oil, buys palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soyaoil from Brazil and Argentina.—Reuters