KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10: Malaysian crude palm oil futures jumped 4.7 per cent on Tuesday to hit a one-month high as investors bet on more orders for the vegetable oil because of drought conditions in rival soyaoil-producing Argentina.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported slight declines to 372,782 tons for Feb. 1-10 palm exports, suggest that Asian buyers may be slowly shifting focus to palm oil rather than soyil. People appear to be overbuying as the drought conditions in

Argentina and China will spur on more demand for palm oil, said a trader with local commodities broker.

Also, tomorrow’s January production numbers for Malaysian palm are expected to be friendly for the market. Industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board will report on Jan. palm stocks, production and exports on Wednesday.

Other traded contracts rose between 42 and 100 ringgit Overall volume shot up to 16,291 lots of 25 tons each from the usual 10,000 lots.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, palm oil prices surged, tracking Malaysian futures.

The Jakarta-based state marketing centre said it sold the entire 6,500 tons of palm oil it offered in an auction at a top price of 6,958 rupiah ($0.591) per kg, up 4.5 per cent from previous auction on Thursday.

Producers in Medan -- home to Belawan port, Indonesia’s palm oil export port -- sold palm oil at 6,925 rupiah per kg. The prices also rose nearly 5 percent from the last auction on Thursday.

Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 7,700-7800 rupiah per kg, up from 7,300-7,400 on Monday.

In Malaysian physical market, palm oil for Feb. shipment was quoted at 1,955-1,980 ringgit per ton in the southern region.

Trades were done at 1,945 and 1,955 ringgit.—Reuters