Malaysian palm oil futures fell to a near three-year low on Wednesday before reversing course as new demand emerged. The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.5 percent at 2,163 ringgit ($534) a tonne at the end of the trading day.
It earlier fell to 2,140 ringgit, its weakest level since September 2015. Trading volume totalled 50,728 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade. "Soyoil saw some upside yesterday," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to soyaoil futures on the US Chicago Board of Trade.
US soyaoil rose in line with soyabean futures, which hit a two-week high on Tuesday as the United States said it would provide up to $12 billion in aid to shield American farmers from economic pain stemming from its trade disputes with China.
The Chicago December soyabean oil contract gained 0.9 percent on Tuesday, and was last up 0.1 percent.
A rise in palm oil exports was supportive for palm, the trader added, but cautioned that further gains could be capped by concerns about rising production in line with seasonal trends.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1 to 25 rose 5 percent versus the corresponding period last month, inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia said on Wednesday.
Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported a 5.6 percent rise for the same period.
In other related oils, the September soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.2 percent, while the Dalian September palm oil contract rose 0.4 percent. Palm oil prices are usually affected by the performance of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market. Signals are mixed for palm oil, as it failed to break a support at 2,149 ringgit per tonne, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.