Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Tuesday after three days of losses, buoyed by bullish forecasts from a leading analyst at an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur. The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed up 0.6 percent at 2,478 ringgit ($635) a tonne. Trading volumes totalled 33,365 lots of 25 tonnes each.
The market is still trading in a range even though it recovered from previous days losses, a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur said. Palm prices hit their lowest since February 5 on Monday after top edible oils importer India said last week it would raise import taxes on the vegetable oil to the highest level in more than a decade, and as the ringgit strengthened, making the tropical oil more expensive for foreign buyers.
Leading industry analyst Dorab Mistry forecast at a conference on Tuesday that Malaysian palm oil futures would climb to 2,700 ringgit a tonne by June, supported by strong world economic growth and higher demand.
Malaysia's minister for plantation industries and commodities told the same industry conference that the country's crude palm oil output was seen at 20.5 million tonnes this year.
In other related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May soyabean oil contract was up 0.6 percent, while the May soyabean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.3 percent. The Dalian May palm oil contract rose 0.3 percent.
Palm oil prices are affected by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
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