KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21:Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed 0.8 per cent lower on Wednesday, dragged down by lower prices of rival US soyaoil.

The benchmark third-month May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange finished down 16 ringgit at 1,925 ringgit ($551) a ton.

Dealers said higher Malaysian palm oil exports failed to lift prices as the market had anticipated the increase.

It is mainly moving on soyaoil which has declined, one dealer said. Export volumes are moving up but that is something that is expected. Other contracts fell between 6 and 17 ringgit .

Overall volume stood at 7,284 lots of 25 tons each. The third-month contract rose 2.7 per cent last week but it was off an eight-year high of 2,062 ringgit reached in December when floods disrupted deliveries.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for February 1-20 jumped 8.4 per cent to 612,057 tons from 564,823 tons shipped between Jan 1 and 20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

Another surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, said exports during the period rose 5.1 per cent to 635,215 tons from 604,423 tons shipped a month earlier. Chicago Board of Trade March soyaoil ended on Tuesday 0.22 cent lower at 29.69 cents per lb, with the deferred months down 0.10 to 0.20 cent as the drop in crude oil weighed on prices.

—Reuters