KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): The FBM KLCI appeared to take a breather from its recent uptrend today, but not entirely perturbed by news of the offer by the entire Khazanah Nasional Bhd board to resign this morning.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 0.66 points to 1,764.44. The index had earlier risen to a high of 1,769.22.

Losers overtook gainers by 419 to 197, while 570 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.87 billion shares, valued at RM1.19 billion.

The top gainers included Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd, Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd, Westports Holdings Bhd, Time Dotcom Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, MISC Bhd and Petronas Gas Bhd.

The actives included Sapura Energy Bhd, Lay Hong Bhd, Vizione Holdings Bhd, Cuscapi Bhd, Ekovest Bhd and Radiant Globaltech Bhd.

The decliners included Nestle (M) Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd and Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd.

Asian stocks inched higher on Thursday, as the United States and Europe agreed on negotiations to ease barriers on trade, but ongoing concerns about the outlook for global growth weighed on investor sentiment, according to Reuters.

A warning of slowing growth from Facebook Inc, which saw the company's stock fall as much as 24% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, highlighted risks for investors and businesses in the current earnings season, Reuters said.

Affin Hwang Capital Research said the FBM KLCI Index closed flat (up 0.85 points) yesterday.

“We anticipate that our local index will consolidate and take a breather, after the recent strong rally seen this past few weeks.

“The FBM KLCI Index [is] likely to move sideways, with slight upward bias in the near-term,” it said.