KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13: Malaysian crude palm futures were steady on Tuesday after retreating the previous day from record peaks hit last week with the market split between investors booking profits and others taking up fresh positions.

Trade was volatile throughout the day, with palm oil prices see-sawing as financial players had differing intrepretations of the declines in crude and soyaoil prices.

The benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 5 ringgit to 2,924 ringgit ($873) a ton, after going as high as 2,957 ringgit.

Malaysian palm oil struck a record high of 3,013 ringgit last week on the strength of crude and soyaoil markets.

Then there are some who think crude’s $100 a barrel dream has suffered a big setback, making it a good reason to take more profit on palm oil. Other traded months mostly rose except for the November and

December contracts, which fell. Overall trade shot up to stand at 17,672 lots of 25 tons each from 12,000 lots that change hands on a routine day.

US light crude for December delivery shed 87 cents to $93.75 a barrel by 1022 GMT.

December soyaoil settled 0.62 cent lower at 44.46cents per lb. But on Tuesday’s Asian trade, the contract swung back to positive territory with a gain of 0.14 cent to 44.60 cents by 1022 GMT.

Palm oil and soyaoil usually track movements in the crude oil market because of growing demand for both commodities as feedstock for biodiesel.

But high prices of palm oil, which are still up nearly 47 Per cent this year, have started to dent demand in the food and biofuel sectors.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products during Nov. 1-10 fell 11.4 per cent to 429,643 tons from 484,670 tonnes shipped between Oct. 1 and 10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country’s crude palm oil output fell 1.39 per cent to 1,579,809 tons in October from a revised 1,602,065 tons a month earlier, official crop agency Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Monday.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for November and December shipments in the southern region was quoted at 2,920/2,930 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 2,930 and 2,950 ringgit.-—Reuters