JAKARTA, Dec 15: Malaysian palm futures wiped out gains of 3 per cent to end slightly lower on Monday, rattled by fears that exports to India will slow down, traders said.

The benchmark February palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange settled down 5 ringgit, or 0.32 per cent, at 1,576 ringgit ($443) per ton, after coming off a high of 1,630 ringgit.

Other traded contracts were mostly lower, falling between 5 ringgit and 40 ringgit. The overall volume stood at 6,891.

An early rally was led by crude oil price rises and news of stronger export data for Malaysian palm oil products in the first 15 days of this month.

Traders, however, said the pace of growth in exports was set to slow due to weakening demand.

Despite of stronger exports of crude palm oil, the market is now flushed with nearby products,” a trader at a Malaysian brokerage said.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Dec. 1-15 jumped 39.3 per cent to 868,629 tons from 623,530 tons shipped between Nov. 1 and 15, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.

What is important now is palm production starts slowing down and consumers feel that prices had bottomed out, the same trader said.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest palm producer, trading was quiet, with the state marketing centre in Jakarta failing to sell the entire 3,000 tonnes of crude palm oil it offered in an auction on Monday.

Producers in Medan -- home to Belawan port, Indonesia’s key port for palm oil exports -- did not hold a palm oil auction on Monday.

Refiners in Jakarta sold refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 5,900 rupiah ($0.54) per kg, down from 6,025 rupiah per kg on Friday.

In the Malaysian physical market, crude palm oil for delivery in December was traded at 1,580-1,590 ringgit a ton in the southern region and 1,575-1,585 ringgit a ton in the central region.—Reuters