KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended flat on Friday as the market was split between prospects of robust demand for the festive season and concerns over rising stockpiles.

Traders said the market was also rife with talk of a possible edible oil import duty increase in India which could pull down prices.

The benchmark November contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended unchanged at 2,430 ringgit per ton ($697).

Production is rising and at the same time exports are very good, its a clash of bulls and bears, said a trader from a leading plantation company.

The edible oil import duty increase in India is being talked about in the market, it is also a bearish factor. We have to wait and see what happens. Other traded months were slightly down in overall volume of 10,096 lots of 25 tons each.

Palm oil, used in products ranging from confectionaries and cosmetics to biofuel, is around 12 per cent off an historic high of 2,764 ringgit reached in early June.

Malaysian palm oil futures are expected to trade between 2,300 and 2,400 ringgit per ton by December, the head of industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Friday.

We are still around 2,500 ringgit and I think in December it will come down to between 2,300 and 2,400 ringgit because the crop is picking up, board chairman Sabri Ahmad told Reuters.

Asian vegetable oil demand has picked up from July as buyers from the Middle East to China lock in supplies for the festive season, especially for the holy month of Ramazan and the Chinese mid-Autumn festival, both due in September.

But Malaysia's palm oil production in August will rise more than 11 per cent from last month due to a seasonal upswing, after a slowdown during the first half of the year, a top industry analyst said last week.

Also, if inflation stays low for the next two weeks, that increase looks all the more certain, said another trader.

Indonesia will announce an increase in palm oil export tax in early September in a bid to contain local cooking oil prices, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said on Thursday.

In mid-June, Indonesia raised the export tax on crude palm oil to 6.5 per cent from 1.5 per cent and palm oil products to 6.5 per cent from 0.3 per cent, to stabilise cooking oil prices which were up about 30 per cent at that time.

November palm oil on Singapore's Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange was untraded by 1031 GMT.

In the physical market, crude palm oil for August shipment in Malaysia's southern region was quoted at 2,530/2,535 ringgit a ton. Deals were done between 2,530 and 2,540 ringgit.

—Reuters