February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3: Malaysian crude palm oil futures returned from a long holiday on Friday to touch the bullish mark of 1,450 ringgit a ton, but lack of follow-through buying saw the market close lower.

Profit-taking ahead of the weekend also erased gains.

The broader futures market settled down six ringgit to up 10.

Volume totalled 4,344 lots of 25 tons each, against the 6,000 lots typically seen on a busy day.

With Friday being the only working day, many players extended their leave until Monday, dealers said.

Palm oil futures have been trapped below 1,450 ringgit for weeks due to weak export numbers.

The main surveyor for Malaysian palm oil exports, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said in a shipment estimate released on Thursday that exports for January were down 8.2 per ent from December.

Such weak demand had resulted in physical stocks of palm oil rising to a record 1.6 million tons at end-November and remaining unchanged at end-December.

—Reuters