Breaking News-RTRS-RPT-INTERVIEW-Bursa Malaysia sees strong palm futures trade

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Reuters) - Malaysian stock exchange operator Bursa Malaysia expects the trading volume of its palm oil futures contract (FCPO) to grow by at least a third this year, helped by increased visibility on the world's largest derivatives exchange, a top executive said.
Bursa Malaysia is in the process of transferring its derivatives contracts currently traded on an in-house platform onto CME Group Inc.'s Globex platform.
Trading of FCPO, the global benchmark price for palm oil <0#KPO:>, grew by 33 percent to 4 million contracts in 2009, Bursa's chief executive, Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.
A bumper South American soy crop, recovering global demand and the resurgent El Nino weather condition will be some of the factors driving Southeast Asian palm oil markets in 2010.