Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market rose on Thursday on concerns that an El Nino weather pattern could return this year, which would cause dryness and cut palm fruit yields. A stronger ringgit also underpinned prices. Asking prices for palm oil were between $37.50 and $7.50 a tonne up after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 20 and 56 ringgit per tonne higher, driven by improving exports and lowered production forecasts and despite a strengthening ringgit, which typically weighs on prices.
A stronger ringgit makes palm oil more expensive for foreign currency holders and usually lowers demand. At 1730 GMT CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.13 cents per lb down and 0.29 cents up supported by a technical bounce in Chicago soyabeans following recent losses, while technical selling in soyaoil futures and easier energy markets limited gains.