KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25: Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell 1.6 per cent on Thursday as investors took profits on weaker crude oil and dismal export numbers from cargo surveyors.

Prices of the tropical oil have fallen around 25 per cent this year, dragged down by bumper harvests, defaults by Asian consumers and rival Indonesia cutting its export taxes amid roiling financial markets.

The most-active December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 38 ringgit to 2,280 ringgit ($665) after hitting an intraday low of 2,259 ringgit.

The physical market is more brisk with some short-covering ahead of the long holidays next week but in the futures market, traders want to square positions because the outlook is uncertain, said a trader with a local commodities broker.

The predominately Muslim country will celebrate Eid-- ul-Fitr on Tuesday or Wednesday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. All financial markets will be closed on that day. Other traded months fell between 5 and 60 ringgit .

Overall trade stood at 19,370 lots of 25 tons each, nearly doubling from the 10,000 lots that change hands on a routine trading day.

Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services reported a 14 per cent decline to 981,637 tons for Sept. 1-25. Societe General de Surveillance estimated shipments fell by 12.9 per cent to 990,686 tons.

Indonesian palm oil prices were mixed on Thursday on the absence of clear price leads.The state marketing centre in Jakarta sold crude palm oil at at 6,104 rupiah ($0.651) a kg, up from 5,993 rupiah a kg on Wednesday.

Most producers have done trading. They can’t ship the palm oil anyway because some roads have been closed ahead the holiday rush, said a dealer in Medan.

In Jakarta, refiners offered refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein, used in cooking oil, unchanged at 6,650 rupiah a kg.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for September and October shipments in the southern and central regions were 2,280/2,310 ringgit. Trades were done between 2,300 and 2,350 ringgit.—Reuters