KULA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures declined in trade on Friday, weighed down by lower demand and profit-taking, but posted their biggest weekly gain since mid-August.

Benchmark palm oil futures for December on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were down 1.8 per cent at 2,675 ringgit ($651) a tonne by the end of the trading day.

The contract hit its highest since April 21 at 2,729 ringgit on Thursday, and has gained 3.1 percent this week in its best performance since the week ended Aug 12. Traded volumes stood at 49,439 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening, higher than the 2015 average of 44,600.

“The market has been holding at these levels this week, some profit-taking is expected,” said a trader from Kuala Lumpur.

Published in Dawn September 24th, 2016