KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a seven-week high in early trade on Thursday, tracking gains in U.S. soyoil and supported by a weaker ringgit.

Palm oil prices typically rise on a weaker ringgit, its currency of trade, as it makes the edible oil cheaper for foreign buyers. The ringgit weakened 0.1% to 3.9850 against the dollar at midday break on Thursday.

The palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.6% at 2,487 ringgit (US$624.09) a tonne at midday break.
 
It earlier climbed to 2,496 ringgit, its highest level since April 9. Palm is also up 1.5% for the week so far, in line for a third straight week of gains.

Trading volume stood at 17,985 lots of 25 tonnes each at midday break.

"The market is up on soybean oil's upside, while crude oil prices are also still holding at high levels," said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur, referring to soyoil on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade.

"The ringgit is also weaker and is expected to further weaken over the week on the dollar's strength."

Palm has been tracking movements in crude oil prices in recent sessions, as the vegetable oil is used for feedstock to produce biodiesel.

While oil prices edged down on Thursday on the back of higher OPEC production, benchmark Brent futures are still trading at over three-year highs at US$79.

Palm oil is impacted by movements in rival edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

The Chicago July soybean oil contract gained 0.6% on Wednesday, and was last slightly up 0.1% on Thursday.

In other related oils, the September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.2%, while the Dalian September palm oil contract rose 0.4%.
    
 Palm, soy and crude oil prices, as of 0440 GMT

 Contract          Month    Last  Change     Low    High  Volume
 MY PALM OIL       JUN8     2478  +16.00    2473    2481     103
 MY PALM OIL       JUL8     2480  +15.00    2478    2488    2621
 MY PALM OIL       AUG8     2487  +14.00    2484    2496    6200
 CHINA PALM OLEIN  SEP8     5180  +22.00    5128    5196  266608
 CHINA SOYOIL      SEP8     5822  +14.00    5772    5840  384718
 CBOT SOY OIL      JUL8    31.73   +0.03    31.6   31.79    2752
 INDIA PALM OIL    MAY8   670.20   +1.70  669.20   670.3      16
 INDIA SOYOIL      JUN8        0   +0.00       0       0       0
 NYMEX CRUDE       JUL8    71.64   -0.20   71.61   72.00   24157

 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
 CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
 Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
 India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
 Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 
(US$1 = 3.9850 ringgit)
(US$1 = 68.3150 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.3910 Chinese yuan)