VEGOILS-Palm flat; trade range-bound on overnight soyoil losses, weaker ringgit

* Palm oil flat at the midday break

* Market sentiment overall weak on slow demand - trader

* Palm oil to retest support at 2,148 rgt/T

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

were flat at the midday break on Tuesday, with trade largely

range-bound in the first half of the session, as a weaker

ringgit offset overnight losses in soyoil, said traders.

A weaker ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically

supports the tropical oil by making it cheaper for holders of

foreign currencies. The ringgit weakened 0.1 percent against the

dollar around Tuesday noon, and was last at 4.0430.

The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery

on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was at

2,173 ringgit ($537.47) a tonne at the midday break, near a

three-year low hit on Friday.

Trading volume stood at 21,441 lots of 25 tonnes each

(1FCPO-TOT)

"Palm is following the overnight drop in the rival oilseed,

but its current recovery and weakness in the local currency may

cushion selling activities," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader,

referring to U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Another trader said overall market sentiment was still weak

"as demand is still not coming in", although cargo surveyor data

showed that the decline in exports has been easing.

Malaysia palm oil exports fell 2.7 percent in the first half

of July versus the previous month, according to data from

inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia, compared with a 14.4

percent decline for the July 1-10 period.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported an

8.8 percent decline in Malaysian palm oil exports for the July

1-15 period, versus a 23.1 percent fall in the June 1-10 period.

In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil

contract fell over 1 percent on Monday, but was last up

0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the September soybean oil contract on China's

Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.5 percent, and the

Dalian September palm oil contract was up 0.7 percent.

Palm oil prices are usually impacted by the performance of

other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global

vegetable oils market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0533 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL AUG8 2158 +15.00 2149 2162 170

MY PALM OIL SEP8 2170 +4.00 2159 2176 5175

MY PALM OIL OCT8 2173 +0.00 2164 2182 7719

CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 4636 +30.00 4626 4666 156506

CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5472 +30.00 5448 5494 130550

CBOT SOY OIL DEC8 28.19 +0.11 28.09 28.31 2710

INDIA PALM OIL JUL8 611.00 -1.70 611.00 613.1 110

INDIA SOYOIL JUL8 744 -0.20 742.8 744 130

NYMEX CRUDE AUG8 67.99 -0.07 67.92 68.22 18277

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 = 4.0430 ringgit)

($1 = 68.4400 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.6803 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sunil Nair)