Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday, ending three sessions of gains and dragged down by higher than forecast inventory data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). Palm was up earlier in the day, touching its highest in over two weeks on expectations of low inventory numbers ahead of the data release.
Benchmark palm oil futures for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed down 0.9 percent at 3,071 ringgit ($691.36) a tonne. It earlier hit 3,135 ringgit, its highest since January 25.
Traded volumes totalled 54,851 lots of 25 tonnes each.
"We had expected stocks to drop more to around 1.45 million tonnes... so traders are liquidating their positions," said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil inventories in Malaysia, the world's second largest producer of the tropical oil, fell 7.6 percent to a five-month low of 1.54 million tonnes at end-January, the MPOB data showed. However, that was weaker than market expectations for a 10.7 percent drop to 1.49 million tonnes.
Exports rose 1.2 percent to 1.28 million tonnes, while output declined more than forecast due to flooding from monsoon rains and fewer harvesting days in January because of the Lunar New Year holiday.
In other related edible oils, the March soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.1 percent, while the May soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.7 percent.
The May contract for Dalian palm olein gained 1.1 percent.