JAKARTA (Nov 4): Malaysian palm oil futures traded lower for the first time in six sessions on Monday, weighed by weak crude prices and as traders booked profits after big gains last week.

By the midday break, the benchmark January contract  on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.3 percent at 2,594 Malaysian ringgit ($820) per tonne.

Total traded volume stood at 19,699 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the usual 12,500 lots.

"The market was on the high side," said a trader with a foreign brokerage in Kuala Lumpur. "The retracement is a bit of profit taking. It is still bullish but factored into prices, and we have negative external factors like crude oil."

The market could find support around 2,570 ringgit, the trader said, adding that investors were also positioning themselves ahead of the Islamic New Year holiday on Tuesday.

Benchmark prices rose 7.5 percent last week, their biggest weekly gain in more than four years, to touch 2,632 ringgit, their highest since Sept. 28, 2012.

Prices were aided last week by lower-than-expected production in Indonesia and Malaysia, due to wet weather and a lower production cycle compared to last year, traders said.

Technicals showed Malaysian palm oil is expected to retrace to 2,544 ringgit per tonne, as it has failed to break a resistance at 2,630 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

In other markets, Brent futures rose above $106 a barrel as investors locked in fresh positions after the previous session's steep fall, but prices are set to weaken amid expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back its monetary stimulus.

In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December rose 0.6 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange was up 0.7 percent.