KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday, snapping a week-long uptrend, as investors booked profits and weakness in soybean oil prices also weighed.
The benchmark third-month palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.2 percent to 2,167 ringgit ($533.48) a tonne, its first drop in six sessions.
Supported by expectations of slowing output growth and a better outlook for exports, futures hit their highest since March 4 on Thursday for a week-to-date gain of 4.7 percent, the largest since November 2016.
"The market has risen quite a bit, so traders are taking profit as well as tracking losses in the bean oil market," a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said on Friday.
The Chicago soybean oil contract fell 0.2 percent. The Dalian Commodity Exchange soyoil contract was down 1 percent while the palmolein contract fell 0.5 percent.
Another trader was optimistic that underlying sentiment remained buoyant, limiting the drop.
The market was also unflustered by plans from the Philippines to temporarily ban palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia. Traders pointed out that the country was only a small importer.
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