LANGHAM, Saskatchewan, July 17 (Reuters) - ICE canola futures shot higher on Thursday, with general vegoils strength and technical factors taking canola over 3% higher.
• November canola RSX5 settled up $23.80 at $699.90 per metric ton. Other contract months saw similar large gains.
• Thursday's rebound came amid general strength in competing vegoil crops like Chicago soyoil and European rapeseed. Traders said the rally in canola accelerated when funds reversed direction from Wednesday, buying rather than selling.
• Reuters reported that Canadian canola crops are heading towards average production, as long as timely rains hit most areas in the next two weeks.
• While spring wheat and canola now look to be likely to reach average production, durum and lentils crops have been damaged by drought in those crops' prime growing area, farmers and analysts told Reuters.
• Chicago Board of Trade soyoil futures BOv1 rose 2.69%.
• Euronext August rapeseed futures COMG5 rose 1.48%.
• Malaysian palm oil futures FCPOc3 fell slightly in the Thursday session but in Friday trading were sharply higher.POI/
• The Canadian dollar CAD= hit a three-week low. CAD/