KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27: Malaysian crude palm oil futures were mostly unmoved on Thursday with the market divided between a strong rally in rival soyabean oil and crude prices and investors cashing profits.

The benchmark December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 7 ringgit to 2,605 ringgit ($763) a ton.

The palm oil market seems to be losing some steam because many players want to take profit, said one trader.

But soyabean oil and crude oil markets will keep palm oil up, the profit-taking is just a slight setback, said another trader.

Other traded months ranged between a 10 ringgit drop to a rise of 9 ringgit, while the February 2008 contract was unchanged.

Overall volume shot up to 15,469 lots of 25 tons each from around 10,000 lots that change hands on a routine trading day.

Oil rallied above $81 a barrel on Thursday, extending late gains the previous day, supported by strength in global equity markets.

US crude rose 60 cents to $80.90, having soared more than $1 in earlier trade to $81.36.

Palm oil, in high demand for making sweetmeats and other delicacies during the current festival season in Asia, is 6 per cent off an historic high of 2,764 ringgit reached in June.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Sept. 1-25 rose 12.4 per cent to 1,100,300 tons from 979,164 tonnes shipped between Aug. 1 and 25, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Tuesday.

Another surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance said exports in the same period rose 11.9 per cent to 1,076,053 tonnes.

December palm oil on Singapore’s Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange was untraded.

In the Malaysian physical market, crude palm oil for September and October shipments in the southern region was quoted at 2,680/2,685 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 2,685 and 2,700 ringgit.—Reuters