September 06, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 12, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed lower in thin trade on Tuesday, hit by a decline in the prices of crude oil and lack of fresh fundamentals.

There are no fundamentals to help the market, it's sliding in one direction, a dealer said.

The contract touched a high of 1,575 ringgit and a low of 1,555 ringgit.

Other traded months fell between 10 and 21 ringgit. Volumes stood at 7,796 lots of 25 tons each, down from around 10,000 to 12,000 lots traded on a normal day.

Palm oil stocks in Malaysia, the world's largest producer, are expected to have declined only 1.1 per cent in August from a month earlier, as exports and output show equally strong growth, a Reuters poll showed last week.

Palm oil output is estimated to have risen 9.1 per cent to 1.5 million tons in August, according to the median estimate of five plantation houses polled by Reuters.

According to cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services, exports of Malaysian palm oil products in August stood at 1,339,032 tons, up 9.3 per cent from the 1,225,495 tons shipped in July.

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports during the month stood at 1,367,456 tons, up 12.8 per cent from the 1,211,764 tons shipped in July.—Reuters