Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended mixed by midday on Monday, but the most active contract rose 4 ringgit on better export figures and a weaker ringgit.
The benchmark third-month September contract on Malaysia's derivatives exchange ended the morning up 4 ringgit at 1,472 ringgit ($398.7) a tonne, after trading between 1,469 and 1,478 a tonne.
Other traded contracts were either down between 1 and 2 ringgit or up between 1 and 4 ringgit. Overall volume stood at 2,161 lots of 25 tonnes each. "The market has mixed fundamentals for today. Exports are good and the ringgit is weakening, which are supportive for palm oil. But there is a weakeness in soyoil during electronic trading," said a dealer in Kuala Lumpur.
On Monday, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said exports of Malaysian palm products for June 1-25 stood at 901,923 tonnes, up 6.4 percent from the 847,835 tonnes shipped between May 1 and 25.
The ringgit fell to 3.69 ringgit per dollar by midday on Monday, from 3.68 on Friday. A weaker ringgit makes Malaysian palm oil cheaper for overseas buyers. July soyoil ended 0.13 cent up at 24.62 cents per lb on Friday, with deferreds up 0.11 at 0.20. But in Monday electronic trading, July soyoil was down 0.12 cent at 24.50 cents per lb.
Soyoil competes with palm oil for use in products ranging from food and soap to cosmetics and biodiesel, so prices for the two commodities tend to move in tandem.