* Discounts against rival soy oil widens-analyst

* USDA sees bumper soy crop this year

(Recasts, updates throughout, adds closing prices/comments)

gain in more than three weeks on on Thursday, tracking a recovery in the soy

market, as buyers were tempted back after by market weakness.

By the close, the benchmark palm oil contract for October on the

Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended 0.95 percent higher to 2,017 ringgit

($503.24) a tonne. It regained some of its 2.2 percent lost posted a day

earlier.

Prices earlier touched a more than 11-month low of 1,958 ringgit, but later

recovered losses to hit a high at 2,020 ringgit. Palm is down 1.2 percent so far

this week.

Traded volume stood at 51,651 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the roughly

35,000 lots usually traded by the close.

"The market is a little bit oversold now, so there's a retracement there,"

said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

Palm oil price discounts compared to soybean oil widened to around $150 per

tonne, from about $120-$130 in the past couple of months, said Rabobank analyst

Pawan Kumar. The widening discounts make palm more attractive to buyers.

The Malaysian ringgit was firmer, but still hovered near its

17-year low, offering support to palm oil prices for overseas customers as

benchmark palm oil is priced in the local currency.

However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast the 2015-16 soybean

harvest at 3.916 billion bushels based on an average yield of 46.9 bushels per

acre. Both figures are better than previously estimated, capping the increase in

palm oil prices.

In other vegetable oils, the U.S. September soyoil contract rose 0.2

percent in late Asian trade, rebounding from its biggest loss in more than a

month in the previous session, while the most active soybean oil contract

on the Dalian Commodity Exchange inched up 0.04 percent.

Crude oil rose as lower U.S. crude stocks and optimistic global demand

projections overrode concerns about a glut of supply.

China let its currency decline for the third day on Thursday, raising

concern that demands could fall from the top palm oil buyer.

Asian shares gained taking reassurance from China's central bank that there

was no basis for further yuan depreciation after it devalued the currency

earlier this week.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1042

GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL AUG5 0 +16.00 0 0 0

MY PALM OIL SEP5 2003 +16.00 1952 2008 1410

MY PALM OIL OCT5 2017 +19.00 1958 2020 18843

CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4628 -4.00 4502 4724 985244

CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5604 +2.00 5466 5736 992694

CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 29.55 +0.50 29.29 29.62 7982

INDIA PALM OIL AUG5 394.00 +0.50 389.60 394.40 840

INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 579.50 -0.75 575.60 579.80 5250

NYMEX CRUDE SEP5 43.41 +0.11 43.17 43.72 27967

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 = 4.0080 ringgit)

($1 = 65.1000 Indian rupees)

($1 = 6.3982 Chinese yuan renminbi)