KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday, ending three sessions of gains and dragged down by higher thanforecastinventorydata 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 per cent at 3,071 ringgit ($691.36) a tonne.

It earlier hit 3,135 ringgit, its highest since Jan 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 7.6pc to a five-month low of 1.54m tonnes at end-January, the MPOB data showed.

However, that was weaker than market expectations for a 10.7pc drop to 1.49m tonnes.-Reuters