KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8: Malaysian palm oil futures gave up the previous day’s gains and ended lower on Thursday after players booked profit ahead of a series of important crop data, traders said.

At the close, benchmark third-month January ended down 25 ringgit at 1,101 ringgit ($289.74) a tonne after trading as high as 1,141 ringgit. Volume was heavy at 2,906 lots.

The January contract rose 40 ringgit at 1,126 ringgit at the close on Wednesday.

Private forecaster Ivan Wong is scheduled to release his final estimates for October palm oil output, end-month stocks and exports on Friday.

The official Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) will release its figures next Monday, when cargo surveyors ITS and SGS will issue their November 1-10 exports data.

Traders said they hoped the government would soon announce a new quota for duty-free export of crude palm oil (CPO) after India cut import duties to 65 per cent from 75 per cent last week and also because of aggressive sales by arch rival Indonesia.

Some traders said Indonesia, the world’s second largest palm oil producer after Malaysia, exported around 570,000 tons of palm oil in October, up from a normal 400,000 tons.

A one million ton quota for this year was exhausted in October and traders said a new allocation is needed if Malaysia is to shield its market share in India from Indonesia.

Earlier, one trade source said Egypt had bought from Malaysia 30,000 tons of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil at $327 a tons C&F.—Reuters