KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures, recording a second week of gains, rose on Friday on firmer rival oilseed soya and on a weaker ringgit, while bullish forecasts ahead of the release of government data next week also supported the market.

A Reuters poll saw end-stocks in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest palm oil producer, declining 9.6 percent to 1.60 million tonnes versus a 9.7 percent gain in production to 1.74 million tonnes.

Official data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board is scheduled for release on Sept. 13 after 0430 GMT.

Benchmark palm oil futures for November on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 1.2 percent to 2,640 ringgit ($649) per tonne at the end of the trading day.

Palm is up 1.7 percent for the week after reaching a near three-week high of 2,662 ringgit on Tuesday.

Traded volumes stood at 37,576 lots of 25 tonnes each.

“The firmness in soya and Dalian palm olein, and the weaker ringgit, is lifting the market up,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

A weaker ringgit, the currency of trade for palm oil, makes the tropical oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. The ringgit fell 0.7 percent against the dollar as of Friday evening to reach 4.0675.

Palm prices are also impacted by soyaoil and related products, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

The January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 1 percent, while the January contract for palm olein gained 1.2 percent.

Palm oil may break a resistance at 2,650 ringgit per tonne and rise more towards the next resistance at 2,710 ringgit, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals. In other related vegetable oils, the Chicago Board of Trade soyabean oil December contract rose 0.6 percent.—Reuters