JAKARTA (Nov 14): Malaysian palm oil futures slipped for a third day on Friday as crude prices hit four-year lows, causing palm to shave off gains made earlier in the week, with traders cautious ahead of export data due out in the coming week.

    
"Weakness in crude oil is adding a technical weakness to the short-term charts," a trader with a local commodities brokerage based in Kuala Lumpur told Reuters.
    
Oil sank to a four-year low below $77 a barrel on Friday, pressured by excess supply and scepticism that OPEC would cut output at a meeting in two weeks.
    
Mixed signals in competing oilseed markets and the Malaysian ringgit kept traders uncertain on where prices would head next, and waited for Malaysian export data for the first half of November, due Monday, to provide a clearer picture of external demand.
    
"We're looking for a new lead," said a second trader, at a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
    
The benchmark December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had inched down 1.2 percent to 2,204 ringgit ($658) per tonne by Friday's close. Prices notched a weak 0.4 percent gain this week after shedding almost 5 percent last week.
    
Total traded volume stood at 45,953 lots of 25 tonnes, above the daily average of 35,00 lots.
    
Unless cargo surveyor export data pushes prices below 2,180 ringgit per tonne, palm would remain range bound in the next week too, the first trader said.
    
In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December eased 0.1 percent in late Asian trade, while the most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange fell 0.36 percent.
    
  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1017 GMT
                                                                                                                                    
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      NOV4       0    +0.00       0       0       0
  MY PALM OIL      DEC4    2188   -33.00    2187    2220    1222
  MY PALM OIL      JAN5    2204   -27.00    2199    2233   22479
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5    5332   -62.00    5330    5388 1043538
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY5    5880   -36.00    5868    5926  505148
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC4   32.02    -1.70   31.95   32.27    7315
  INDIA PALM OIL   NOV4  449.00    -1.70  447.80  450.20     576
  INDIA SOYOIL     NOV4  580.70    -2.15  580.70  582.70    5045
  NYMEX CRUDE      DEC4   74.34    +0.13   73.25   74.49   39788
                                                                                                                                    
  Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
  CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
  Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
  India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
  Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 
($1 = 3.346 Malaysian ringgit)
($1 = 6.1307 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 61.77 Indian rupee)