KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures eased 1.2 per cent on Wednesday as weak crude and competitive vegetable oils weighed on prices of the tropical oil ahead of export data due out later this week.

The benchmark palm oil contract for November on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed 1.2pc lower at 2,034 Malaysian ringgit ($495.86) a tonne.

It hit a low of 2,024 ringgit in early trade before recovering some of its losses by the close. Traded volume stood at 43,673 lots of 25 tonneseach, above the roughly 35,000 lots usually traded per day.

`It`s in line with what`s happening to soy oil and Dalian,` said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

`Tomorrow the first 20-day export figure will be out.

Based on the last 15 days, it won`t be that rosy.

Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance are due to release data on Malaysia`s Aug. 1-20 palm oil exports on Thursday.Reuters