June 10, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9:Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended mostly lower on Friday and activity was thin as players awaited export estimates data next Monday, dealers said.

The benchmark third-month August contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange ended down four ringgit at 1,456 ringgit a ton ($397) after trading as high as 1,461 ringgit.

“The market was very quiet until the last few minutes whentey sold a few hundreds lots and the market came down and closed at 1,456 ringgit,” said one dealer referring to the benchmark August contract.

Other traded contracts were either down three to four ringgit or up one ringgit. Overall volume was light at 1,456 lots of 25 tons each, versus Thursday's 5,973 lots.

Dealers said the latest Reuters poll on Friday reflected what the market expected.

Palm oil output rose 6.8 per cent to 1,400,000 tons in Mayfrom 1,310,805 tons in April, according to the median estimate of five plantation houses polled by Reuters.

Exports fell 4.8 per cent to 1,180,000 tons last month from 1,238,881 tons in April, the poll showed.

The goernment-run Malaysian Palm Oil board (MPOB) is due to release official production, exports and closing stocks figures for May on June 12.—Reuters