JAKARTA, Dec 31: Malaysian palm futures dropped 44.43 per cent in 2008, the biggest yearly decline ever, but could see a continuation of their recent rebound at the start of 2009 as exports pick up, traders said.

On Wednesday, the last trading day of 2008, palm prices ended up more than 1 per cent, recouping earlier losses on news of stronger December exports.

The benchmark March palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange rose 24 ringgit, or 1.44 per cent, to 1,695 ringgit ($491) per ton, having fallen to as low as 1,639 ringgit earlier in the day.

Other contracts were mostly higher, rising between 9 ringgit and 22 ringgit. The overall volume was thin at 9,682 lots of 25 tons each.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for December rose 22.2 per cent to 1,642,340 tons, from 1,343,802 tons shipped in November, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Wednesday.

In terms of (price) fluctuation, this year has been an exceptional year because we have seen a very high price of 4,486 ringgit and a low of 1,331 ringgit, an analyst at a Malaysian commodities brokerage said.

Normally, we may see a 1,000-points fluctuation in a year, but not more than 3,000 points. Of course nobody in his life has ever seen this kind of wild fluctuation he said.

A Malaysian trader, however, said he is cautiously looking at a trading range of between 1,480 ringgit and 1,700 ringgit for early next year.

In physical market, Malaysian palm oil for December and January deliveries was traded at 1,660-1,670 ringgit a ton in the southern region and 1,655-1,665 ringgit a ton in the central region.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, the state marketing centre did not hold a palm oil auction. The next auction will be on Jan. 5.—Reuters