KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8: Malaysian crude palm oil futures slipped 1.6 per cent on Thurday as investors liquidated long positions ahead of export and output data due next week.

The benchmark third-month April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange finished down 30 ringgit at 1,891 ringgit ($541) a ton.

Other contracts fell between 12 and 32 ringgit. Players just wanted to liquidate contracts to avoid risk during the directionless period, one dealer said.

The export outlook was quite slow over the past few weeks, so they expect the export data may not look good, another trader said.

The state-run Malaysian Palm Oil Board will release palm oil output, export and closing stocks data for January on Monday, when surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance release their export numbers for Feb. 1-10.

The third-month contract jumped 2.3 per cent last week on a firm soyaoil market. But the benchmark palm oil contract is still off eight-year highs of 2,062 ringgit reached in December, when floods disrupted deliveries.

March soyaoil closed 0.06 cent up at 30.43 cents per lb on Wednesday, but the rise did not help support palm oil futures as they were under pressure from expectations of poor exports, traders said.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products fell 20 per cent in January to 952,753 tons from 1,198,976 shipped in December, Intertek Testing Services said.

In the physical market, crude palm oil for February shipment was quoted at 1,905/1,915 ringgit per ton. Trades were done between 1,915 and 1,920 ringgit.—Reuters