KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 24): The FBM KLCI paused for a breather today and gave up some of its recent gains at mid-morning, weighed by select blue chips.

At 10.10am, the FBM KLCI fell 2.54 points to 1,825.50.

Losers led gainers by 327 to 317, while 365 counters traded unchanged.

Volume was 1.02 billion shares valued at RM495.74 million.

The decliners included Petronas Gas Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, DRB-Hicom Bhd, Genting Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Ipmuda Bhd, Time Dotcom Bhd, Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd and UMW Holdings Bhd.

The actives included Sumatec Resources Bhd, Sino Hua-An International Bhd, UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd, UEM Sunrise Bhd and Ucrest Bhd.

The gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Seacera Group Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd, Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd and Kuchai Development Bhd.

Asian shares scaled record peaks on Wednesday as strong corporate earnings and optimism on global growth outweighed concerns over trade tensions, while a fresh burst of speculative selling took the U.S. dollar to three-year lows, according to Reuters.

A 10 percent surge in Netflix led gains across the tech sector as it became just the latest to top forecasts. So far, 82 percent of reporting companies having beaten estimates, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research in a traders’ brief said in the US, bullish tone may extend with the removal of government shutdown risk and the on-going 4Q reporting season in the US.

“Also, following the better-than-expected 4Q results and steady crude oil movements, we believe investors are likely to hang on with the uptrend move.

“Similarly, the positive mood may spillover towards stocks on Bursa Malaysia with the rally in tech stocks on Wall Street and the on-going Invest Malaysia event.

“Also, O&G stocks could still be on traders’ watch list as the Brent crude oil steadied near the US$70 level,” it said.