Palm oil recovers

Kuala Lumpur : Malaysian palm oil futures recovered from a one-week low on Thursday and closed the first-half trade slightly higher, on the back of bargain-buying and gains in the Chicago Board of Trade soyoil, while a lack of bullish news weighed on the market.

The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.04 percent at 2,415 ringgit ($608.62) a tonne at the midday break.

Earlier in the session, it hit the lowest since May 8 at 2,399 ringgit. Trading volume stood at 19,336 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break on Thursday. "We´re seeing some bargain-hunting, but it seems like the market has no supportive news to push it higher," said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur, adding that some gains in U.S. soyoil were supportive of palm.