VEGOILS-Palm rises to seven-week peak on stronger soyoil, weaker ringgit

* Palm hits 2,498 rgt/T, highest since April 9

* Crude oil prices supporting palm -trader

* Palm up 1.7 pct this week

(Updates with closing prices)

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures

rose to a seven-week high on Thursday evening, tracking gains in

U.S. soyoil and supported by a weaker ringgit.

Palm oil prices typically rise on a weaker ringgit,

its currency of trade, because it makes the edible oil cheaper

for foreign buyers. The ringgit weakened as much as 0.2 percent

against the dollar before closing the day with a 0.03 percent

gain at 3.9790.

The palm oil contract for August delivery on the

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.8 percent at 2,492

ringgit ($626.29) a tonne at the end of the trading day.

It earlier climbed to 2,498 ringgit, matching the intraday

high of April 9. Palm is also up 1.7 percent for the week so

far, in line for a third straight week of gains.

Trading volume stood at 41,918 lots of 25 tonnes each at the

close.

"The market is up on soybean oil's upside, while crude oil

prices are also still holding at high levels," one Kuala Lumpur

futures trader said, referring to soyoil on the U.S. Chicago

Board of Trade.

"The ringgit is also weaker and is expected to weaken

further over the week on the dollar's strength."

Palm, which can be used as feedstock to produce biodiesel,

has been tracking movements in crude oil prices in recent

sessions.

While oil prices edged down on Thursday on the back of

higher OPEC production, benchmark Brent futures are

still trading at more than three-year highs of $79.

Palm oil is affected by movements in rival edible that

compete in the global vegetable oils market. The Chicago July

soybean oil contract gained 0.6 percent on Wednesday and

was last up 1 percent on Thursday.

In other related oils, September soybean oil on China's

Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.3 percent, while the

Dalian September palm oil contract rose by 0.4 percent.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices, as of 1058 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL JUN8 2474 +12.00 2473 2481 897

MY PALM OIL JUL8 2483 +19.00 2477 2490 5858

MY PALM OIL AUG8 2490 +19.00 2483 2498 15059

CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP8 5178 +20.00 5128 5196 326200

CHINA SOYOIL SEP8 5824 +16.00 5772 5840 460952

CBOT SOY OIL JUL8 32.01 +0.31 31.6 32.05 9423

INDIA PALM OIL MAY8 670.80 +2.30 669.20 671.6 343

INDIA SOYOIL JUN8 781.5 +0.50 779 782.5 7450

NYMEX CRUDE JUL8 71.38 -0.46 71.25 72.00 115050

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 = 3.9790 ringgit)

($1 = 68.3300 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.3820 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Emily Chow

Editing by Sunil Nair and David Goodman)