CHICAGO, March 15 (Reuters) - ICE (NYSE:ICE) canola futures 0#RS: were higher on Friday as short-covering and bargain buying lifted prices in the technically oversold market ahead of the weekend, traders said.
* Commodity funds hold a large short position in canola, leaving the market vulnerable to bouts of short-covering if fresh fundamental news is lacking, as it was on Friday.
* Farmer sales to elevators and processors were very light as prices are hovering just above recent lows. That limited hedge selling in futures.
* The most-active May canola contract RSK9 settled $3.60 higher at $464.80 per tonne. The contract rose 1.6 percent in the week, its first weekly gain in five weeks.
* July canola RSN9 was up $3.50 at $472.90, notching a 1.5 percent weekly gain.
* Chicago May soybeans SK9 finished 10-3/4 U.S. cents higher at US$9.09-1/4 per bushel.
* Malaysian May palm oil futures 1FCPOK9 were up 0.19 percent on Friday after setting a contract low earlier in the session. It was the contract's third contract low in as many days.
* The Canadian dollar CAD= was at $1.3348 to the U.S. dollar, or 74.91 U.S. cents, at 2:58 p.m. CDT (1958 GMT).