KUALA LUMPUR, June 14: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed firmer on Friday, recouping all of their Thursday’s losses as the market tracked overnight gains in Chicago soyoil futures.

Traders said expectations of good exports data for the first 15 days of June, due on Monday, also prompted heavy short covering and renewed speculative buying.

Benchmark third-month August contract ended up 61 ringgit at 1,455 ringgit ($382.89) a ton. It fell 43 ringgit on Thursday.

Volume was again heavy at 5,339 lots, although smaller than Thursday’s record 7,678 lots.

The market has been driven by strong local fundamentals, such as minor increases in output, dwindling stocks and steady overseas demand.

Chicago Board of Trade soyaoil futures ended up 0.10 to 0.18 cents per lb on Thursday, with July up 0.14 cents at 17.86 and August up 0.12 cents at 17.94.

Supportive weekly US export sales data sparked the rally, traders said.

The US Department of Agriculture on Thursday reported weekly net US soyabean exports sales (old and new crop combined) for the week ended June 6, at 496,300 tons, above the trade’s estimates.

The figure was 81 per cent of the previous week’s sales and 47 per cent above the four-week average, while soyabean shipments at 533,400 tons tripled the prior week’s shipments.

Some traders were surprised over Friday’s big gains after India increased the base import prices of palm oils.

Just after the market closed on Thursday, India said it had raised the base prices, which is used to calculate tariffs. It increased the base import price of crude palm oil to $392 from $344 a ton.

The base import price of refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil has been hiked to $414 from $365 a ton, and that of RBD palm olein to $426 from $375 per ton.—Reuters