Palm oil edges up as crude bounces from 4-yr lows

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures edged up on Thursday to snap a 2-day fall after Brent prices bounced off four-year lows and as the ringgit remained weak. 

Brent crude rose above $83 a barrel on Thursday, rising further from its lowest level since 2010 after a lower-than-expected rise in U.S. crude stocks and solid U.S. job growth provided relief after a string of negative Chinese data.

Rising prices of crude oils help stoke demand for palm to be used as an additive to make biodiesel.

"Crude oil recovered, but soybean and soyoil continued downwards because of the speedy harvesting going on in the U.S. now," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"The palm market is depending on external factors, but the ringgit is still supporting and slowing down the drop. That's why palm's drop is not as strong as soy's," the trader added.  

By the midday break, the benchmark January contract  on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had edged up 0.5 percent to 2,264 ringgit ($679) per tonne.

Total traded volume stood at 17,891 lots of 25 tonnes, above the usual 12,500 lots.

Technicals showed palm oil is expected to climb to 2,295 ringgit per tonne, as it has found a support at 2,259 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

The U.S. soyoil contract for December rose 0.1 percent in early Asian trade, while the most active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange shed 0.2 percent.

Both contracts have tumbled about 18 percent so far this year, outstripping palm's losses of around 15 percent.

Chicago soybean futures edged lower on Thursday amid expectations that rapid harvesting of record U.S. crops would boost global supplies.

The Malaysian ringgit was trading at 3.3335 against the greenback on Thursday, after falling to Feb. 4 lows of 3.3450 per dollar.

A Reuters survey of planters, traders and analysts on Thursday show that Malaysian palm oil stocks likely rose further to a 19-month high of 2.16 million tonnes at the end of October, as exports of the tropical oil dipped. – Reuters