Updates with midday price, adds trader's comments

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Reuters) -Malaysian palm oil futures were little changed on Thursday, as weakness in rival Dalian and Chicago contracts were offset by bargain buyers and firmer crude oil prices.

The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.03% to 3,931 ringgit ($843.02) a metric ton by the midday break.

The contract opened 24 ringgit lower then traded mostly sideways despite softer rival edible oils, a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.

The emergence of bargain buyers had briefly brought the contract up to a high of 3,941 ringgit before it settled 1 ringgit lower at the midday close, the trader added.

Dalian's most-active soyoil contract DBYcv1 fell 0.31%, while its palm oil contract DCPcv1 lost 0.15%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade BOcv1 were unchanged.

Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Oil prices extended gains, buoyed by a bigger-than-expected decline last week in crude stockpiles in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer.

Brent LCOc1 futures rose 36 cents, or 0.42%, to $85.44 a barrel by 0442 GMT.

Firmer crude oil futures make palm a more attractive option for biodiesel feedstock.

The ringgit MYR=, palm's currency of trade, weakened 0.06% against the dollar, making the commodity less expensive for buyers holding foreign currencies.

Malaysia maintained its August export tax for crude palm oil at 8.0% and raised its reference price, a circular on the Malaysian Palm Oil Board website showed.

Palm oil may fall into a range of 3,841-3,873 ringgit per metric ton, as a bounce from the July 10 low of 3,850 ringgit may have ended, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.

($1 = 4.6630 ringgit)

Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by Rashmi Aich

For a table on Malaysian physical palm oil prices, including refined oil, Reuters Terminal users can double click on or type OILS/MY01. * To view freight rates from Peninsula Malaysia/Sumatra to China, India, Pakistan and Rotterdam, please key in OILS/ASIA2 and press enter, or double click between the brackets. * Reuters Terminal users can see cash and futures edible oil prices by double clicking on the codes in the brackets: To go to the next page in the same chain, hit F12. To go back, hit F11. Vegetable oils OILS/ASIA1 Malaysian palm oil exports SGSPALM1 CBOT soyoil futures 0#BO: CBOT soybean futures 0#S: Indian solvent SOLVENT01 Dalian Commodity Exchange DC/MENU Dalian soyoil futures 0#DBY: Dalian refined palm oil futures 0#DCP: Zhengzhou rapeseed oil 0#COI: European edible oil prices/trades OILS/E