KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended firm on Friday, but off 3-week highs notched earlier in the session as gains were curbed by falling crude markets and expectations of weaker exports.

Traders were expecting cargo surveyors to release bearish

Feb. 1-10 Malaysian palm export data on Tuesday as India was slowing purchases and China had not quite entered the market.

People are taking profits in view of the long holiday weekend and expectations that crude oil will make more losses, said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage.

Malaysian palm futures and physical markets will be shut on Monday for a Hindu festival.

The benchmark April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 1 ringgit at 1,880 ringgit ($522.2) after hitting 1,908 ringgit level earlier in the day, a level unseen since Jan.13.

Other traded contracts were either marginally higher or lower. Overall volume shot up to to 16,985 lots of 25 tons each from the usual 10,000 lots.

Soyaoil for March delivery edged up in Asian trade.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, the state marketing centre held its first export tender in almost three months.

The Jakarta-based centre said it sold 3,000 tons of palm oil to Sindopalm Pte Ltd at a price of $520 per ton. In its previous export tender in November, it sold palm oil at $385 per ton.

Producers in Medan -- home to Belawan port, Indonesia’s key palm oil export port -- sold palm oil at 6,636 rupiah ($0.566) per kg, up from 6,615 rupiah per kg on Thursday.

Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 7,250 rupiah per kg, against 7,100 rupiah per kg on Thursday.

In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for Feb. shipment was quoted at 1,890-1,900 ringgit per ton in the southern region. Trades done at 1,880 and 1,900 ringgit.—Reuters