Palm hits 4-week high on strong markets

JAKARTA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rose as much as 1.7 percent to a four-week intraday high before finishing slightly off the high, underpinned by a rebound in crude oil and rival soy prices, traders said.

   "I believe a strong overseas market offset heavy short-covering," said a trader with a commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

   The benchmark April contract <KPOc3> on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 29 ringgit to 2,550 ringgit ($740.96) per tonne, after going as high as 2,563 ringgit, a level not seen since Jan. 12. 

   Traded volume was 13,069 lots of 25 tonnes each.

   Positive sentiment stemmed partly from ongoing market talk of a decline in the end-January palm oil stock thanks to strong exports and a fall in output, and good exports for the first ten days of February.

   Industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) will release January palm oil production, exports and stocks on Wednesday while cargo surveyors will release their estimates for Feb. 1-10 exports on the same day.

   The market is expecting end-Janaury stock to fall 11 percent to about 2.0 million tonnes from a 13-month top in December, said another trader at a Malaysian brokerage.

   Apart from palm oil data, the market is also awaiting Tuesday's U.S. Department of Agriculture report of grains and soybean supplies at the end of the 2009-10 marketing year, which is expected to revised down. [ID:nN04220845]

   In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for February delivery was traded at 2,550-2,560 ringgit in the southern and central regions. [PPO/MY]

   Other vegetable oils markets were also trading higher. U.S. soyoil for March contract <BOH0) rose 1.16 percent in Asian trade and the most-active September soybean oil contract <DBYU0> on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1.4 percent.

   Oil rose almost $1 a barrel on Monday to above $72 as prices rebounded from the previous session's decline to a near two-month low, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar. [O/R]

   INDONESIAN PALM TRADES 

   In Indonesia, Jakarta-based PT KBN Nusantara, formerly known as the state marketing centre, sold 5,500 tonnes of crude palm oil at a top price of 7,425 rupiah ($0.791) per kg, against 7,326 rupiah on Friday. Producers in Medan, home to Indonesia's main palm oil export port of Belawan, did not hold a palm oil tender.

   Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, sold at 7,850 rupiah per kg, up from 7,750-7,700 rupiah on Friday.