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Malaysian palm oil futures dropped on Friday as weak export figures worried traders, but the soft dollar helped to limit losses.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Mar. 1-20 fell

7.1 percent from the same period last month to 652,837 tonnes

cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Friday.

Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services showed

exports for the same period fell 5.5 percent.

"The slower exports in the current month is worrying the

market," said a trader with a local commodities brokerage based

in Kuala Lumpur.

The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia

Derivatives lost 2.04 percent to close at 2,160 ringgit

($579).

Total traded volume stood at 54,306 lots of 25 tonnes,

higher than the average 35,000 lots.

"The Fed's move to further (delay) the interest rate hike

sending the dollar lower was a supportive factor today," a

second Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.

The dollar steadied on Friday after rebounding from the

shock of a surprisingly dovish U.S. Federal Reserve, which

signalled a slower pace of interest rate hikes earlier this

week.

The softer greenback supported competing edible oils, those

priced in the dollar, as they became cheaper for buyers holding

other currencies, and that lent support to palm oil.

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active September

soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange

fell 0.22 percent, while the U.S. soyoil contract for May

inched down 0.56 percent.

Brent crude fell towards $54 a barrel on Friday and was on

track for its third straight weekly loss, hurt by oversupply

worries after Kuwait said OPEC had no choice but to maintain

output levels.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1035 GMT

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL APR5 2165 -42.00 2165 2207 276

MY PALM OIL MAY5 2165 -45.00 2165 2216 8799

MY PALM OIL JUN5 2160 -45.00 2155 2211 25089

CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 4688 -30.00 4678 4756 593376

CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5412 -22.00 5394 5456 514352

CBOT SOY OIL MAY5 30.45 -4.30 30.39 30.77 6402

INDIA PALM OIL MAR5 434.60 -4.30 434.60 441.40 437

INDIA SOYOIL APR5 577.60 +0.60 575.70 580.40 20135

NYMEX CRUDE APR5 43.74 -0.22 43.38 44.01 1503

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 = 3.7290 ringgit)

($1 = 6.2037 Chinese yuan renminbi)

($1 = 62.5175 Indian rupees)