Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market rose on Friday, tracking stronger Malaysian palm oil futures on hopes for improving exports during February because of a slightly weaker ringgit. Asking prices for palm oil were between unchanged and $7.50 a tonne up from Thursday after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 24 and 35 ringgit higher, with Malaysian palm oil export data for the first 25 days of February due on Monday.
"Optimism (among futures traders) over exports in February is hard to believe as during the month growth slowed somewhat and since the last data was given, on February 20, there was Chinese New Year and the month is three days shorter than January," one broker said. CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.06 and 0.46 cents per lb higher at 1730 GMT on follow-through technical buying sparked by concerns over soyabean production in Argentina because of adverse weather, with firmer energy markets also offering support.