VEGOILS-Palm eases from near-seven-month peak on stronger ringgit

* Market touches intraday high of 2,307 rgt/T

* Palm up 3 pct on week

* Stronger demand to support long-term palm uptrend -trader

(Updates with closing prices)

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

on Friday rose to its highest in nearly seven months before

giving up gains as a stronger ringgit weighed on the

market.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery

was down 0.1 percent at 2,294 ringgit ($556.46) a tonne at the

close of trade on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange,

snapping five days of gains.

It had risen earlier by 0.4 percent to an intraday high of

2,307 ringgit, its strongest since July 5. Palm is also up 3

percent for the week.

Trading volumes stood at 22,116 lots of 25 tonnes each at

the end of the trading day. (1FCPO-TOT)

"The market is reacting towards the stronger ringgit," one

Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader said, adding that the market

was generally bullish on rising demand.

"Demand is strong so stocks will drop, though they will

still be relatively high."

Strength in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, usually

makes the edible oil more expensive for foreign buyers. The

ringgit strengthened 0.5 percent to 4.1225 against the dollar on

Friday evening.

Another trader estimated that gains in Malaysian exports in

January will be driven by Indian demand for palm olein.

"The palm market is still on an overall uptrend," he said.

India, the world's largest importer of edible oils, this

month lowered the duty on crude palm oil imports to 40 percent

from 44 percent and a tax on refined oils was trimmed to 50

percent from 54 percent.

Malaysian shipments of refined palm oil, however, will be

taxed at 45 percent compared with 54 percent previously.

In related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil contract

rose 0.3 percent, while the May contract on the Dalian

Commodity Exchange edged up by 0.1 percent.

The Dalian January palm oil contract, meanwhile,

firmed by 0.2 percent.

Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyoil rates

because both compete in the global vegetable oil market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1040 GMT:

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL FEB9 2190 -10.00 2186 2202 270

MY PALM OIL MAR9 2266 -1.00 2255 2278 2598

MY PALM OIL APR9 2292 -5.00 2288 2307 10763

CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY9 4778 +8.00 4754 4786 333684

CHINA SOYOIL MAY9 5692 +4.00 5662 5710 318266

CBOT SOY OIL MAR9 29.59 +0.08 29.47 29.66 5047

INDIA PALM OIL JAN9 558.00 +2.00 555.30 558.8 292

INDIA SOYOIL FEB9 767.4 +5.15 763.05 768.5 7630

NYMEX CRUDE MAR9 53.33 +0.20 53.03 53.94 132837

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 = 4.1225 ringgit)

($1 = 71.1930 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.7626 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow

Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and David Goodman)