VEGOILS-Palm hits 2-week high on weakness in ringgit

* Palm rises as much as 0.7 pct to 2,181 ringgit/T

* Crude oil weakness caps palm's gains - trader

* India tax cut supportive, but yet to see better demand -

trader

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

were trading at a two-week high in early trade on Thursday

boosted by a weaker ringgit, but a sharp decline in crude

oil prices capped gains.

The ringgit, palm's currency of trade, weakened 0.1 percent

against the dollar to 4.1400 around noon, making the vegetable

oil cheaper for foreign buyers.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery

on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had rose as much as

0.7 percent to 2,181 ringgit before paring some gains. It was

last up 0.1 percent at 2,169 ringgit ($523.91) a tonne at the

midday break.

Trading volumes stood at 15,043 lots of 25 tonnes each at

noon. (1FCPO-TOT)

"The market had risen tracking gains in the Chicago Board of

Trade and Dalian Commodity Exchange, and a weak ringgit, but

weak crude oil weighed," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader,

referring to gains in related edible oils on the two exchanges.

While palm could be supported by rising demand following

India reducing its palm oil import taxes, the trader said export

data was yet to reflect that as the new ruling had been

implemented this week.

India, the world's largest importer of edible oils, said on

Monday it would lower the duty on crude palm oil imports to 40

percent from 44 percent, while a tax on refined oils was cut to

50 percent from 54 percent.

Malaysian shipments of refined palm oil, however, will be

taxed at 45 percent compared with 54 percent earlier.

Oil prices slipped on Thursday amid volatile currency and

stock markets, and as analysts warned of an economic slowdown

for 2019 amid rising crude supplies globally.

In other related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil

contract rose 0.4 percent, while the January soybean oil

contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange jumped 1.8

percent.

Meanwhile, the Dalian January palm oil contract

gained 2.2 percent.

Palm oil prices are impacted by changes in soyoil prices, as

they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0500 GMT:

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL JAN9 2090 +20.00 2090 2090 3

MY PALM OIL FEB9 2129 +1.00 2115 2143 1244

MY PALM OIL MAR9 2169 +3.00 2155 2181 6372

CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN9 4188 +88.00 4100 4188 1732

CHINA SOYOIL JAN9 4980 +88.00 4892 4980 200

CBOT SOY OIL JAN9 27.9 +0.00 0 0 25

INDIA PALM OIL JAN9 527.00 +2.50 522.40 529.3 435

INDIA SOYOIL JAN9 740 +0.15 738.8 742 2030

NYMEX CRUDE FEB9 45.76 -0.78 45.39 46.35 59516

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 = 4.1400 ringgit)

($1 = 70.4040 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.8754 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Rashmi Aich)