JAKARTA (Sept 1): Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third day in strong trading on Tuesday after a jump in crude oil prices overnight and gains in competing vegetable oil markets.

A stronger ringgit had little impact.

By Tuesday's close, the benchmark November palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange was up 1.1% at 2,009 ringgit ($482), after trading in a range between 1,973 and 2,019 ringgit.

Total traded volume on Tuesday was high, at 63,004 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual daily average of 35,000 lots.

"Palm is up purely on the back of external market factors," a trader at a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia said, referring to the 8% gains in crude oil prices overnight and increases in vegetable oil contracts on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

"It's pretty strong," the trader said. A more than 1% rise in the Malaysian ringgit, which benchmark palm is priced in, on Tuesday was having no impact on palm oil prices.

"I think it has no bearing," the trader said, adding that recent export data was also having little impact.

The currency was up 0.67% at 4.16 per dollar by 1313 GMT, stretching gains into a third session. The ringgit has been emerging Asia's worst performing currency, losing nearly 17% this year, on weakness in global currencies and domestic political woes.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products fell 1.2% in August to 1,525,389 tonnes, from 1,543,868 tonnes shipped during July, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.

However, another surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said Malaysia's palm exports over the same period rose 0.2% to 1,542,017 tonnes, from 1,539,583 tonnes shipped during July.

Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst of commodities and energy technicals, said palm oil could fall to 1,936 ringgit per tonne, as it has failed to break a resistance at 1,981 ringgit.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the most active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was flat in late Asian trade, while Dalian palmoil for January was up 0.42%. The US December soyoil contract was down 1.31%.

Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, after official data showed China's manufacturing sector contracted at its fastest pace in three years. The drop followed a more than 8% rally in Brent and US crude in the previous session.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1306 GMT

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in US 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 US dollars per barrel

($1 = 4.1640 ringgit)