Malaysian palm oil futures on Wednesday saw their first session of gains this week, lifted by concerns about lower production and a weakening ringgit , palm's traded currency.
A weaker ringgit usually makes the tropical oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. It weakened 0.2 percent against the dollar to 4.1860 in the evening.
Benchmark palm oil futures for January on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were up 1 percent at 2,758 ringgit ($659) a tonne at the close of trade.
The contract earlier fell to an intraday low of 2,712 ringgit, its lowest level in a week and a half, before recovering to an intraday high of 2,764 ringgit.
Traded volumes stood at 42,884 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day, slightly below the 2015 daily average of 44,600 lots.
"The weather is a factor for the production decline.
This could lower production in the coming months," said a trader from Kuala Lumpur, referring to the year-end monsoon rains that disrupt palm's fruit harvest.
Traders also say the market was supported by a report from a local research house forecasting flat output in October from September. September output in Malaysia, the world's No.2 palm producer, rose just 0.8 percent to 1.72 million tonnes from the previous month.
October data from government body the Malaysian Palm Oil Board will be released on Nov. 10. In related vegetable oils, the December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.2 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 1.3 percent.
The January contract for palm olein on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange declined 2 percent.
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