VEGOILS-Palm gains nearly 1 pct on improved demand

* Palm in line for first gain in five sessions

* Market also up on retracement after previous declines -

trader

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

rose nearly 1 percent at the midday break on Monday, in line to

snap four earlier sessions of losses, on the back of improved

demand and a market retracement, according to traders.

The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery

on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.9

percent at 2,178 ringgit ($538.18) a tonne at the midday break,

its strongest gain in nearly three weeks.

Trading volume stood at 24,386 lots of 25 tonnes each

(1FCPO-TOT)

Palm oil prices fell to a three-year low in the previous

session, tracking weakness in edible oils and falling demand.

However, the low prices have spurred some buying interest,

said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader.

"Prices are up likely on bargain-buying, given the recent

low prices," he said, while another trader added that palm is

also up on a market retracement after last week's losses, which

saw palm shed 5.3 percent for the week.

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 on Monday. This compares

with a 14.4 percent decline for the July 1-10 period.

In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil

contract fell 0.2 percent, while the September soybean

oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange

dropped 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the Dalian September palm oil contract

was trading flat at around 0453 GMT.

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 0453 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL AUG8 2148 +24.00 2138 2151 156

MY PALM OIL SEP8 2170 +23.00 2145 2176 7038

MY PALM OIL OCT8 2178 +19.00 2156 2185 9076

CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 4616 +0.00 4554 4618 182198

CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5440 -38.00 5410 5472 186668

CBOT SOY OIL DEC8 28.34 -0.05 28.25 28.41 2722

INDIA PALM OIL JUL8 615.40 +0.30 615.20 616.4 93

INDIA SOYOIL JUL8 741.9 -1.75 741.9 743 210

NYMEX CRUDE AUG8 70.62 -0.39 70.42 70.87 19057

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 = 4.0470 ringgit)

($1 = 68.5725 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.6890 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sunil Nair)