* End-stocks could drop to the year's lowest in May -trader
* Malaysia palm exports for May 1-15 down 3-8 pct -cargo
surveyors
* Palm oil may rise to 2,346 ringgit -technicals
(Updates prices)
By Anuradha Raghu
KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
rose on Thursday as buyers returned after three straight
sessions of losses, and investor sentiment brightened for
exports to recover in the second half of May.
Shipments of palm oil fell between 3 percent and 8 percent
over May 1 to 15 from the corresponding April period, fanning
concerns that demand for the tropical oil is slowing, but
traders said the decline was smaller than expected and exports
could pick up in the coming weeks.
Traders also expect output in Malaysia, the world's
second-largest producer, to slow this month and to help further
ease stocks that have dipped below the psychological
2-million-tonne mark to 1.93 million tonnes in April.
"There are buyers coming in to support the market, which can
be seen from the increased trading volumes," said a trader with
a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"I've also been hearing that production this month is not as
good as expected. It looks like end-stocks could dip further,
and May's stocks could be the lowest in the whole year," the
trader added.
By Thursday's close, the benchmark August contract
on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had risen 0.7 percent
to 2,314 ringgit ($768) per tonne. Prices traded in a range
between 2,292 and 2,324 ringgit.
Total traded volumes stood at 44,002 lots of 25 tonnes each,
higher than the usual 35,000 lots.
Malaysia announced on Wednesday it would set its crude palm
oil export tax for June at 4.5 percent, unchanged since March.
Top producer and biggest rival Indonesia is to set June taxes at
the end of the month.
In vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for July delivery
rose 0.2 percent in late Asian trade. The most-active
September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities
Exchange rose 0.1 percent.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUN3 2320 +25.00 2289 2323 1059
MY PALM OIL JUL3 2324 +27.00 2294 2332 16814
MY PALM OIL AUG3 2314 +17.00 2292 2324 18218
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP3 6042 +28.00 5942 6090 715242
CHINA SOYOIL SEP3 7410 +4.00 7310 7454 1013730
CBOT SOY OIL JUL3 49.44 +0.09 49.17 49.60 5879
NYMEX CRUDE JUN3 93.56 -0.74 93.23 94.37 21480
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
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1=3.013 ringgit)
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
