13/04/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Thursday after resuming trading after a one-day break, as traders booked profits and buying interest was limited by concerns over the European debt crisis and a possible slowdown in the global economy.

Along with recent data from the United States and China suggesting a slowdown in economic recovery, new worries about Spain's fiscal woes weighed on investor sentiment, dragging palm oil futures below the 3,600-ringgit mark.

"The market's down today on some profit-taking after the holiday. Fundamentally, supply and demand factors still remain largely the same. It's just that the market has been run up so this is purely a correction on uncertainty over external factors," a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia said. 

Benchmark June palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 1.5 percent to close at 3,559 ringgit ($1,161) per tonne. Traded volumes stood at 26,342 lots of 25 tonnes each, slightly higher than the usual 25,000 lots.

On the technicals front, palm oil is expected to either hover below 3,590 ringgit per tonne or retrace to 3,530 ringgit,said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

Palm oil futures went as high as 3,628 ringgit on Tuesday, a level not seen since March 8 last year, on bullish data suggesting lower stocks and higher exports.

Malaysia's palm oil stocks for March fell to a seven-month low at 1.96 million tonnes as export growth outpaced production, said industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

This exceeded estimates in a Reuters poll that called for a 3.5 percent drop in palm stocks to 1.99 million tonnes.

Exports recorded a monthly gain of 7.8 percent and 8.9 percent for the first 10 days of April, according to cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance respectively.   

Brent crude held steady above $120 on Thursday as a weaker dollar helped recoup losses made earlier in the day, while comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank eased worries about growth in oil demand.

In other vegetable oil markets, the most active U.S. soyoil contract for May gained 0.1 percent while the most active Dalian soyoil September contract inched up 0.2 percent.  

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      APR2    3610   -35.00    3600    3622      64
  MY PALM OIL      MAY2    3570   -49.00    3570    3607    1841
  MY PALM OIL      JUN2    3559   -54.00    3556    3598   13964
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    8932   +26.00    8892    8948  174530
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP2    9950   +24.00    9888    9962  430556
  CBOT SOY OIL     MAY2   56.48    +0.03   56.41   56.65    5306
  NYMEX CRUDE      MAY2  103.00    +0.30  102.39  103.32   27358

  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=3.066 ringgit)