Malaysian palm oil price gains for second week

JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Friday, ending a second week of gains, but volumes were thin as Easter holidays in some countries sapped interest in markets.
    The Indonesian government announced on Friday it would allocate funds to
subsidise biodiesel. 
    "That triggered some short covering ahead of the long holidays," said a
trader with a local commodities in Kuala Lumpur, referring to the Easter
holidays.
    Increased use of biodiesel can result in stronger demand for palm oil, which
is one of the oils that can be blended to make biodiesel. 
    By the day's close, the benchmark June contract on Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives was up 1.15 percent at 2,191 ringgit ($598) a tonne, its highest
level since Monday and a weekly gain of 1.01 percent was the strongest in eight
weeks.
    Total traded volume stood at 18,540 lots of 25 tonnes, well below the
average 35,000 lots.
    "There's a U.S. holiday and traders are looking for new leads," a second
trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur said.
    In comparative vegetable oils, the most active September soybean oil
contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.22 percent.
     Brent crude oil fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday after a preliminary pact
between Iran and global powers on Tehran's nuclear programme, even as officials
set further talks in June and analysts questioned when the OPEC member will be
allowed to export more crude. 
 Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1016 GMT
                                                               
 Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
 MY PALM OIL      APR5    2205   +51.00    2195    2210      40
 MY PALM OIL      MAY5    2197   +25.00    2176    2197    2116
 MY PALM OIL      JUN5    2191   +25.00    2170    2192   12083
 CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5    4678   +22.00    4646    4680  306492
 CHINA SOYOIL     SEP5    5398   +12.00    5368    5408  363632
 CBOT SOY OIL     MAY5   31.04    -2.80    0.00    0.00       0
 INDIA PALM OIL   APR5  435.60    -2.80  434.30  437.50     425
 INDIA SOYOIL     APR5  590.20    +0.20  588.30  591.70    8060
 NYMEX CRUDE      MAY5   49.14    +0.00    0.00    0.00       0
                                                               
 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
 CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
 Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
 India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
 Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 ($1 = 3.6680 ringgit)
($1 = 6.1930 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 62.1300 Indian rupees)
- Reuters