KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15: Malaysian crude palm futures ended firmer on Thursday, after a volatile session as the market was torn between steady export growth estimates from cargo surveyors and declines in soyaoil and crude markets.

Palm oil, used in products ranging from chocolates and cosmetics to biofuel, is just 2.4 per cent off a record high of 3,013 ringgit hit last week.

The most active January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 8 at 2,942 ringgit ($873) a ton, after going as high as 2,982 ringgit.

Speculation is the name of the game because players are shortcovering on healthy exports and profit-taking according to crude and soyaoil price directions, said a dealer with a foreign brokerage. This will go on till the end of the week.” Other traded months rose between 8 and 30 ringgit. Overall trade stood at 9,642 lots of 25 tons each.

Oil retreated below $94 a barrel on Thursday, as traders weighed expectations of another draw in crude stocks against concerns of slowing demand and the chance of an Opec output rise in December.

Palm oil and soyaoil usually track movements in the crude oil market because of growing demand for both commodities as feedstock for biodiesel.

Palm oil is up 47 per cent this year.

India’s edible oil imports rose 6.7 per cent to 4.71 million tons in the year ended Oct. 31, helped by a reduction in import duty, a trade body said on Thursday.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for November 1-15 rose 2.4 per cent to 687,539 tons from 671,741 tons shipped between October 1 and 15, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Thursday.

But another surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports for the same period fell 1.3 per cent to 670,772 tons.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for November shipment in the southern region was quoted at 2,980/2,990 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 2,980 and 2,990 ringgit.

—Reuters