KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): Malaysian palm oil futures climbed to a six-week high in evening trade on Tuesday, charting a third session of gains in four, tracking overnight strength in U.S. soyoil and crude oil prices.  

The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.3% at 2,477 ringgit (US$624.64) a tonne at the end of the trading day for its largest percentage gain since May 14. 

The market had hit an intraday peak of 2,485 ringgit, its highest since April 9.

Trading volume stood at 39,505 lots of 25 tonnes each by the close.

"Soyoil is up, and crude oil is trading at three-year highs," said one futures trader in Kuala Lumpur, adding this encouraged more production of palm-based biodiesel. 

Palm oil prices are affected by movements in crude oil, because it is used as feedstock to produce biodiesel. Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday, on concerns Venezuela's output could drop further after a disputed presidential election and potential U.S. sanctions on the OPEC member.

Another trader said expectations of lower palm oil production in May also supported benchmark prices.  

Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) had showed April output in the Southeast Asian country dipped by 1% to 1.56 million tonnes from a month earlier, but was still the highest April level since 2015.

Palm oil is also affected by movements in rival edible oils that compete in the global vegetable oils market.

The Chicago July soybean oil contract jumped 1.4% on Monday, tracking rallies in soybean prices after the United States and China agreed to drop tariff threats, as they work on a wider trade agreement. 

Soyoil was up 0.7% at about 1100 GMT on Tuesday.

In other related oils, September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.2%, while the Dalian September palm oil contract was trading flat.

 Palm, soy and crude oil prices, at 1100 GMT

 Contract           Month    Last  Change     Low   High  Volume
 MY PALM OIL       JUN8      2463  +30.00    2440   2468     836
 MY PALM OIL       JUL8      2466  +31.00    2446   2476    4846
 MY PALM OIL       AUG8      2474  +31.00    2451   2485   16908
 CHINA PALM OLEIN  SEP8      5162   +0.00    5132   5184  331100
 CHINA SOYOIL      SEP8      5812  -12.00    5762   5826  428760
 CBOT SOY OIL      JUL8     31.65   +0.23   31.38   31.7    9028
 INDIA PALM OIL    MAY8    668.50   +3.30  663.50  669.9     605
 INDIA SOYOIL      JUN8     778.2   +0.90   775.1    780   16440
 NYMEX CRUDE       JUN8     72.46   +0.22   72.42  72.72    3222

 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
 CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
 Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
 India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
 Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 
(US$1 = 3.9655 ringgit)
(US$1 = 68.0600 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.3676 Chinese yuan)