Malaysian palm oil futures dropped on Friday as weak export figures worried traders, but the soft dollar helped to limit losses. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Mar. 1-20 fell 7.1 percent from the same period last month to 652,837 tonnes cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Friday.
Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services showed exports for the same period fell 5.5 percent. "The slower exports in the current month is worrying the market," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage based in Kuala Lumpur.
The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives lost 2.04 percent to close at 2,160 ringgit ($579).
Total traded volume stood at 54,306 lots of 25 tonnes, higher than the average 35,000 lots.
"The Fed's move to further (delay) the interest rate hike sending the dollar lower was a supportive factor today," a second Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.
The dollar steadied on Friday after rebounding from the shock of a surprisingly dovish US Federal Reserve, which signalled a slower pace of interest rate hikes earlier this week.
The softer greenback supported competing edible oils, those priced in the dollar, as they became cheaper for buyers holding other currencies, and that lent support to palm oil.
In other vegetable oil markets, the most active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.22 percent, while the US soyoil contract for May inched down 0.56 percent.
Brent crude fell towards $54 a barrel on Friday and was on track for its third straight weekly loss, hurt by oversupply worries after Kuwait said OPEC had no choice but to maintain output levels.
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