12/10/2013 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures eased slightly on Friday due to profit-taking after five days of gains, with trading seen range-bound as the focus shifts to U.S. lawmakers who are struggling to reach a deal to avert a possible sovereign default next week.

By the midday break, the benchmark December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had edged down 0.5 percent to 2,378 ringgit ($750) per tonne.

Total traded volume stood at 13,574 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 12,500 lots.

"It is purely profit-taking after four days of being up," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage, adding that the debt standoff in the United States was holding traders back ahead of the weekend.

Republican lawmakers, who have not passed budget funding, on Thursday offered a plan that would extend the U.S. government's borrowing authority for several weeks, staving off a default that could come as soon as Oct. 17.

Palm prices are on course for a 3 percent gain this week, the highest weekly gain since mid-August.

"It has been a very good week," the trader added. "A lot of people are bearish in the market, but the MPOB report was a big surprise ... everybody was looking for about 1.9 million tonnes.

Malaysia's palm oil stocks in September edged up to 1.78 million tonnes, a smaller-than-expected rise as output of the tropical oil grew slower than anticipated and exports remained healthy, data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed on Thursday.

In other data, exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Oct. 1-10 rose 22.5 percent to 550,877 tonnes from 449,821 tonnes shipped during Sept. 1-10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said.

Palm oil exports from Indonesia, the world's top producer, rose 4 percent to 1.455 million tonnes in August, according to Bank Indonesia data on Thursday.

"The lower prices are because of the ringgit's strength," said a Jakarta-based palm trader. "This week, our palm oil production data did not increase as much as what people expected, and exports remain good."

Asian currencies rose as risk sentiment improved on growing hopes for a deal in Washington.

Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil is due for a fall to 2,349 ringgit per tonne, as a short-term uptrend is peaking, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.

In other markets, Brent oil slipped towards $111 per barrel but was still on track to end the week higher after an overnight jump in prices due to concern over supply risks in the Middle East and hopes of a deal to end the U.S. budget crisis.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December fell 0.8 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange was little changed.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0635 GMT     

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume                     
  MY PALM OIL      OCT3    2380   -10.00    2380    2390      50                     
  MY PALM OIL      NOV3    2376   -13.00    2374    2391     358                     
  MY PALM OIL      DEC3    2378   -13.00    2376    2395    6703                     
  CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN4    5612   +28.00    5592    5664  298114                     
  CHINA SOYOIL     JAN4    7064   -14.00    7054    7128  478102                     
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC3   40.87    -0.35   40.85   41.23    5910                     
  NYMEX CRUDE      NOV3  102.66    -0.35  102.56  102.95    5150      

  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 = 3.1915 Malaysian ringgits)