February 11, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 12, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10: Malaysia’s crude palm oil futures rebounded from early losses to close slightly higher on Friday, helped by data showing a drop in domestic stocks.

The benchmark third-month crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, April, ended up two ringgit at 1,466 ringgit ($393.61) a ton after trading as low as 1,455.

Overall volume was 4,411 lots of 25 tons each, down from Thursday’s 7,237 lots.

The official Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Friday output of palm oil in Malaysia was 936,592 tons in January, or 12.86 per cent lower than December.

Stocks of palm oil at the close of last month totalled 1,539,796 tons, down 3.99 per cent from December, it said.

Prices had earlier fallen due to lower-than-expected export estimate for the first 10 days of February and declines in rival soyaoil.

In physical crude palm oil, February quotes stood at 1,450/1,455 ringgit a ton in southern and central regions. Trades were reported at 1,445-1,450 ringgit for both regions.—Reuters