This is what i mean by high correlation.. oil up palm oil up GAR up..

* Index up 0.4 percent

* Golden Agri rises 4.5 pct on higher palm oil prices

By Charmian Kok

SINGAPORE, March 9 (Reuters) - Singapore shares rose for a second-straight session as Asian markets gained on signs Greece would avoid a messy default, and an upbeat outlook for palm oil prices lifted firms such as Golden Agri-Resources .

Golden Agri was the top gainer on the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI), on expectations it will benefit from higher crude palm oil prices (CPO).

" CPO prices have been rising a lot and expectations are that it will still go higher," said Carey Wong, an investment analyst at OCBC Investment Research.

By 13:00 local time or 0500 GMT, the Straits Times Index (STI) was up 0.42 percent, or 12.40 points, at 2,982.78. The index is little changed over the last one week, but is up 13 percent so far this year.

Shares of Golden Agri, which owns palm oil plantations, jumped 4.2 percent to S$0.745 with over 91.1 million shares traded, making it the most actively traded stock by value.

Larger rival Wilmar International Ltd also rose 1.8 percent to S$4.99.

Palm oil prices are expected to hit 4,000 ringgit by the end of June, leading analyst Dorab Mistry said at a key palm oil conference on Wednesday. Prices have been trading in a range of 3,000-3,300 ringgit this year.

Across Asia, stock markets were higher, with Tokyo stocks jumping to a seven-month high after Greece successfully closed a bond swap offer aimed at reducing its colossal debt pile an adverting a chaotic default. (Editing by Anshuman Daga)