VEGOILS-Palm oil down on Europe concerns, exports eyed

* Malaysian palm oil exports drop nearly 15 pct for April
1-15
* Export data for April 1-20 to be released on Friday
* Palm oil still eyes 3,402 ringgit -technicals
* Farmer shareholders OK Malaysian $2 bln palm oil IPO

(Updates prices, adds details)
By Chew Yee Kiat
SINGAPORE, April 19 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
closed slightly lower on Thursday, recouping most of their
losses after Spain sold as many bonds as it wanted, which helped
calm fears about the euro zone economy but concerns about
slowing demand kept prices lower.
Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 0.1 percent to close at 3,477
ringgit ($1,136) per tonne after falling during the session to
3,439 ringgit, its lowest level since March 30.
Traded volumes stood at 34,170 lots of 25 tonnes each,
higher than the usual 25,000 lots.
Malaysian palm oil exports fell by almost 15 percent for the
first half of the month, stoking investor concerns that exports
were slowing as orders shifted to top producer Indonesia, which
enjoyed a favourable tax structure for refined products.
Market players are now keeping a close watch on export data
for April 1-20 due to be released on Friday for more signs about
the demand trend.
Palm oil touched a 13-month high at 3,628 ringgit last week,
and traders said it was now going through a price correction as
most of the bullish factors, including 7-month low palm oil
stocks, have been priced in.
"I think the sentiment now has changed a bit. When the
market hit above 3,600 ringgit, everybody was asking for a
healthy correction. So now the immediate target is at about
3,400 ringgit," said a trader with a foreign commodities
brokerage in Malaysia.
"If you look at the Malaysian supply-demand situation, it's
not looking so good ... exports have been weak."
Thursday's bond auctions by Spain and France are key to
investor confidence in Europe's ability to tackle growing
economic and fiscal problems. Spain managed to sell the 2.5
billion euros ($3.3 billion) of bonds it wanted to, but at
higher yields.
Tight soybean supply in drought-hit South America remained a
bullish factor for palm oil and traders said that any signs that
the supply situation is worsening could be supportive for palm
oil futures.
A bearish target of 3,402 ringgit per tonne remains
unchanged for palm oil, however, provided it does not suddenly
jump to 3,520 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

In related news, a Malaysian farmers' investment cooperative
voted in favour of a controversial $2 billion listing of a
state-linked palm oil firm, a government minister said on
Thursday.
Crude oil prices gained on Thursday, bouncing from a
two-month low set the previous session.
In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil
contract for May jumped 1.1 percent while the most active
Dalian soyoil September contract ended trading 0.1
percent higher.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1008 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL MAY2 3495 -5.00 3460 3495 747
MY PALM OIL JUN2 3489 +0.00 3450 3497 4454
MY PALM OIL JUL2 3477 -2.00 3439 3487 20985
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2 8842 -16.00 8806 8844 144524
CHINA SOYOIL SEP2 9886 +2.00 9834 9888 367024
CBOT SOY OIL MAY2 55.77 +0.58 55.21 55.78 4974
NYMEX CRUDE MAY2 103.12 +0.45 102.55 103.21 6480

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
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

($1=3.0613 ringgit)

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)