KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures reversed losses to end the trading day higher on Wednesday, as official government data showed that stockpiles declined unexpectedly at the end of July.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) said palm oil stocks at the end of last month were down 0.2 percent from end-June. Traders had been expecting palm stocks to rise 3.1 percent.

Benchmark palm oil futures for October on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 1.4 percent to 2,500 ringgit ($627) per tonne at the close of trade, charting an eighth session of advances in nine.

It earlier reached a more than two-month high of 2,512 ringgit, its strongest level since June 14. Traded volumes stood at 63,081 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening, higher than the 2015 average of 44,600.

“The market had earlier been waiting for MPOB data,” one Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.

“Polls thought end-stocks would go up, so this is a bullish factor.”

End-July stockpiles in Malaysia, the world’s second largest palm producer, fell by 0.2 percent from the previous month to 1.77 million tonnes, versus a Reuters forecast of 1.83 million tonnes.

Palm output rose 3.5 percent month-on-month to 1.59 million tonnes, while exports surged 21 percent to 1.38 million tonnes.

In related vegetable oils, the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.1 percent while the September soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 1.3 percent.—Reuters