KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 12): The FBM KLCI remained in negative territory at the midday break on Friday on a lack of domestic catalysts.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 3.10 points to 1,863.01.

The top losers included AMMB, Press Metals, PPB, UMW, Public Bank, KLK, Sime Darby, Aeon Credit, Maybank and Boustead.

Talam Transformers was the most actively traded counter with 61.28 million shares done. The stock was flat at 11.5 sen.

The other actives included KTB, PDZ, Sumatec, AirAsia X, Prinsiptek, Tek Seng, Efficient, IFCA MSC and Iris Corp.

The top gainers included United Plantations, Nestle, BAT, Hong Leong Industries, HLFG, KSL, Metal Reclamation, Engtex, Pestech and Gabungan AQRS.

Regionally, the U.S. dollar was riding high in Asia on Friday as unending speculation about the prospects for rising U.S. interest rates undermined commodity prices and spurred investors to unwind leveraged trades in higher-yielding currencies, according to Reuters.

Talk the Federal Reserve might take a hawkish turn at its policy meeting next week, possibly by dropping its commitment to keeping rates low, has seen U.S. Treasury yields steadily creep higher and injected new life into the dollar, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said that amid lack of domestic catalysts, it reiterated its near-term range bound consolidation outlook on Bursa Malaysia, ahead of the widely focus monetary policy meetings of US Federal Open Market Committee (16-17 Sep) and Bank Negara Malaysia (18 Sep).

“Overall, any unfavourable hawkish tone on Fed’s future interest rate hike timeframe and should Bank Negara Malaysia decide to introduce another hike in its overnight policy rate could usher in wild swings into the markets.

“Short term technical resistances are 1876-1886 and supports fall on 1850-1860,” it said.