Malaysia's Sime Darby Plantation Q2 profit plunges 70 pct

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Sime Darby Plantation Bhd posted a 70 percent plunge in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, due to lower crude palm oil and palm kernel prices.

Net profit came in at 129 million ringgit ($31.70 million) for the quarter ended December, compared with 429 million ringgit a year earlier, the world's largest palm oil planter by land size said.

Revenue fell to 3.5 billion ringgit from 4.1 billion ringgit.

Declining inventories and a reduction in India's import duties on palm oil would help the company's performance going forward, Managing Director Bakke Salleh said in a statement.

"Despite an overall increase in our fresh fruit bunch production and oil extraction rate, the palm oil industry continued to weather prevailing low crude palm oil and palm kernel prices, arising from the United States-China trade war, as well as the relentless negative sentiment on palm oil from Europe," he added.

Shares of Sime Darby Plantation were 0.2 percent higher before the break, outperforming the benchmark stock index which was down 0.25 percent.

Benchmark palm oil prices were last up 0.8 percent at 2,149 ringgit a tonne.

($1 = 4.0690 ringgit) (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)