VEGOILS-Palm oil gains on stronger export data

* Palm charts second consecutive daily gain

* Malaysian exports rose 13-15 pct on-month during March

1-15 -

surveyors

(Updates with closing prices)

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil

futures climbed in Tuesday evening's trade to chart a second

straight session of gains on the back of stronger export data.

The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery

on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.4 percent to

2,435 ringgit ($621.97) a tonne at the close of trade.

It rose as much as 0.9 percent earlier in its trading

session before paring some gains. Trading volumes stood at

50,459 lots of 25 tonnes each on Tuesday evening.

"The market is up on stronger export figures today," said a

palm oil futures trader, referring to data released by an

inspection company before the midday break.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for March 1-20 rose

15.3 percent to 913,091 tonnes from the 791,992 tonnes shipped

during Feb. 1-20, AmSpec Agri Malaysia said.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported

that exports in the same duration rose 13.6 percent as shipments

to China, Pakistan and India improved.

Palm oil exports from Malaysia, the world's second largest

producer, are expected to pick up in the coming weeks as buyers

stock up ahead of Ramadan which begins in mid-May this year.

The Muslim holy month sees devotees break day-long fasts

with communal feasting, which incurs higher usage of palm oil

for cooking purposes. Buyers in regions such as the Middle East

usually start increasing purchases of palm oil one to two months

ahead of the festivities.

In other related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May

soybean oil contract was down 0.1 percent, while the May

soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell

0.3 percent.

The Dalian May palm oil contract, however, rose 0.7

percent.

Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible

oils as they compete in the global vegetable oils market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices as of 1040 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL APR8 2450 +17.00 2422 2462 936

MY PALM OIL MAY8 2447 +12.00 2420 2458 6532

MY PALM OIL JUN8 2439 +14.00 2410 2448 23204

CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY8 5130 +36.00 5054 5146 344162

CHINA SOYOIL MAY8 5660 -14.00 5606 5692 330320

CBOT SOY OIL MAY8 32.03 -0.03 31.89 32.15 4920

INDIA PALM OIL MAR8 641.80 +3.20 638.80 642.7 378

INDIA SOYOIL MAR8 765.1 -0.60 764.65 766.5 380

NYMEX CRUDE APR8 62.51 +0.45 62.08 62.78 2121

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 = 3.9150 ringgit)

($1 = 65.2175 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.3289 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sunil Nair and Louise

Heavens)