Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell 1.1 percent on Tuesday as players booked profits after four straight days of gains, but losses were limited by healthy export growth, traders said. The benchmark October contract on the Bursar Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 28 ringgit, or 1.1 percent, at 2,608 ringgit ($756) per tonne.
Other traded months fell between 20 and 36 ringgit. Overall traded volume slipped to 8,788 lots of 25 tonnes each from 12,000 lots that usually change hands on a routine day.
"Definitely it's profit-taking, emerging after prices rose for four days," one dealer said. "Exports are still fine so the market is supported by this factor."
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products in July rose 9.3 percent to 1,084,062 tonnes from 991,620 tonnes shipped in June, cargo surveyor Interlake Testing Services said.
Another surveyor, Society General de Surveillance data said exports in the same period rose 8.3 percent to 1,090,916 tonnes. Exports of palm oil have begun to rise after slow sales in June, as buyers across Asia lock in supplies for festivals such as the Chinese mid-Autumn festival and the Muslim holy month of Ramazan, both due in September.
Palm oil is nearly 6 percent off an historic high of 2,764 ringgit reached in June on robust demand from top importers India and China and dwindling supplies at home.
October palm oil on Singapore's Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange was unthreaded while the December contract was up 2.6 percent to $767.75 per tonne with only one contract traded. In the physical market, crude palm oil for August shipment in Malaysia's southern region was quoted at 2,715/2,725 ringgit a tonne. Deals were done at 2,720/2,750 ringgit.