KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose more than two per cent on Monday, tracking an increase in rival soybean oil prices and supported by a weakening ringgit currency.

Traders said palm oil prices were also helped by steady crude oil, which remained well above $75 a barrel. The benchmark October contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange finished up 53 ringgit, or 2.1 per cent, to 2,636 ringgit ($762) per tonne.

“Palm oil is getting all the help from soybean oil gains on Chicago Board of Trade and from the ringgit falling even further today (Monday),” said a leading trader. “Crude oil may have gone lower but it is still above $75 a barrel, which has brought the palm biofuel story back to life all over again.”

Other traded months rose between 43 and 80 ringgit. Overall trading volume shot up to 27,119 lots of 25 tonnes each from 10,000 lots that are usually changed on a routine day. The ringgit remained weak on Monday after last week’s fall, hovering around 3.460 ringgit per dollar as selling of Asia’s high-yielding currencies resumed and tensions in global equity and credit markets remained.

A weaker ringgit against the dollar makes ringgit-based palm oil cheaper for overseas buyers. Soybean oil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose on Friday, supported by the $2 per barrel rally in crude oil which climbed over $77. Soyoil settled 0.15 cent to 0.27 cent per lb higher, with August up 0.17 at 36.76 cents. On Monday during the electronic trade, the contract rose more than one per cent to 37.15 cents a lb by 1030 GMT.

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