17/05/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures tumbled to their lowest in more than three months on Wednesday, as traders feared a prolonged political crisis in Greece could slow the global growth momentum and dampen commodity demand. 

Greece's warring parties have refused to form a viable coalition, triggering new elections that could potentially result in a euro zone exit.  

The political uncertainty that dragged down global stocks and commodities also sent palm oil futures to a 2.8 percent year-to-date loss, compared to a more-than-5-percent gain just a week ago. 

"Palm is not spared from the broad-based selling as commodities including crude oil, gold, silver, soybeans and soybean oil are all dropping," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia. 

"People are just getting out the market. External factors are putting on a lot of pressure."

Benchmark August palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 3.9 percent or 124 ringgit to close at 3,085 ringgit ($990) per tonne. Prices earlier hit a low at 3,052 ringgit, a level last seen on Feb. 2.  

Traded volumes stood at 63,019 lots of 25 tonnes each, more than double the usual 25,000 lots as traders rushed in to liquidate their positions.

Malaysian palm oil exports for May 1-15 rose 0.7 percent, said cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services.  

Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, however, reported a 7 percent drop in exports to 564,477 tonnes, thanks to lower shipments to China and India.  

In the latest development of an upcoming listing of Malaysian palm oil firm Felda Global Venture Holdings (FGVH), Fidelity Investments and Hong Kong's Value Partners have agreed to be cornerstone investors.

Commodities group Louis Dreyfus said on Monday it agreed to take a minority stake in Felda, conditional on a successful June stock market float.

Oil prices slid with world shares and the euro on Wednesday as investors fled from riskier assets, while a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories helped send the WTI benchmark to a more than six-month low.  

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for July fell 2 percent in Asian trade while the most active Dalian soyoil September contract lost 1.1 percent.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1005 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JUN2    3100  -129.00    3083    3242    1859
  MY PALM OIL      JUL2    3093  -132.00    3061    3235   15318
  MY PALM OIL      AUG2    3085  -124.00    3052    3226   35160
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    8118   -96.00    8090    8270  200634
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP2    9230  -104.00    9212    9402  411780
  CBOT SOY OIL     JUL2   50.42    -1.05   50.05   51.52   15680
  NYMEX CRUDE      JUN2   92.15    -1.83   91.81   93.44   35672

  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
  Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 ($1 = 3.12 ringgit)