KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30: Malaysian crude palm futures fell 2 per cent on Friday after rebounding the previous day as crude oil markets fell sharply and the outlook for demand and supply turned gloomy, traders said.

Palm oil is now 4.5 per cent off a record high of 3,068 ringgit struck on Monday.

The benchmark February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 60 ringgit to 2,930 ringgit ($873) per ton.

When crude oil rushed higher yesterday, palm oil hurriedly followed with short covering and today it’s just a different direction with profit taking, said a head dealer with a foreign commodities trading firm.

But the decline was worse because the export numbers show a slight slowdown and talk of a supply increase is getting louder. Other traded months fell between 47 and 59 ringgit.

Overall trade stood at 12,790 lots of 25 tons each.

Palm oil prices, which are still up nearly 47 per cent this year, have boosted the value of Malaysian palm oil firms including Sime Darby, which relisted on the local market on Friday at a 36 per cent premium to its indicative price, after its merger with two other palm-oil groups.

Crude palm oil prices are expected to average 2,600 ringgit per ton in 2008, Sime Darby Chief Executive Ahmad Zubir Murshid said on Friday.

Oil eased below $91 on Friday, after giving up all its gains in the previous session as a fire-damaged Canada-to-United States oil pipeline could resume operation within days.

Malaysian palm oil stockpiles are likely to rise 8 per cent in November as strong growth in production outpaced a small increase in exports, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for November fell 2.2 per cent to 1,289,182 tons from 1,318,306 tons shipped in October, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Friday.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for December shipments in the southern region was quoted at 2,950/2,960 ringgit a ton. Trades were unquoted by the end of the session.—Reuters