KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24: Malaysian palm oil futures held ground after an overnight rise in Chicago soyaoil futures but trade was almost nil ahead of the Christmas holiday.

With the US and European commodity exchanges already closed on Monday for the yuletide holidays, few were willing to take positions in Malaysian palm oil given its directionless state, traders said.

It’s holiday mood all over, said a dealer, adding that the market’s next indicator would be export data for December 1-25, due on Wednesday.

Switching of contracts from nearby months to forwards was the main activity for the day, said traders.

The benchmark third-month March futures closed 12 ringgit up at 1,146 ringgit a ton.

Volume was at 842 lots, less than half of the daily average for this month. Dealers said the volume would have been thinner if not for the contract switching.

Physical palm oil, which had fared no better than futures by midday, saw some short-covering in the late session.

December crude palm oil (CPO) was bid at 1,100 and offered 1,110 ringgit in southern region. The same contract for the central region saw bids for 1,105, offers for 1,110 and was traded at 1,100.

January CPO for south and central was bid at 1,115 ringgit and offered for 1,120.—Reuters