KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed higher on Friday, boosted by strong export estimates from cargo surveyors and higher prices of rival soyaoil.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for October 1-20 rose

14.3 per cent to 979,224 tons from 856,999 tons shipped between September 1 and 20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, whose numbers are closely tracked by the industry, said shipments jumped 17 per cent to 941,070 tons from the 804,277 tons sold between Sept 1 and 20.

Exports are moving at a good pace, said one dealer. This should help in cutting some of the stocks. The benchmark third-month January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended up 13 ringgit at 1,623 ringgit ($442) a ton after trading in a range of 1,615 and 1,623 ringgit.

Other traded contracts finished up between 4 and 14 ringgit. Overall volume stood at 9,309 lots of 25 tons each.

The market will be closed from Oct. 23 to 25 for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival to mark the end of the Ramadan fasting month.

Traders said palm oil production was likely to be affected by the holidays although this was not expected to lead to any supply shortage as stocks were at a record high of 1.799 million tons.

December soyaoil on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.60 cent at 26.54 cents per lb, deferreds up 0.52 to 0.60 cent.

In the physical crude palm oil market, November shipment was quoted at 1,572.50/1,580 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 1,572.50 and 1,575 ringgit a ton.—Reuters