KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): The FBM KLCI remained muted at the mid-day break today, as regional markets dipped.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI pared some of its losses and was down 4.43 points to 1,630.46. The index had earlier fallen to its intra-morning low of 1,625.81.

Losers led gainers by 407 to 242, while 348 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 837.05 million shares, valued at RM673.98 million.

The top losers included United Plantations Bhd, Lafarge Malaysia Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, P.I.E. Industrial Bhd, Can-One Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group, Genting Plantations Bhd and Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd.

The actives included AirAsia X Bhd, AirAsia Bhd, XOX Bhd, Vsolar Group Bhd, EKA Noodles Bhd, Vivocom International Bhd and DiGi.Com Bhd.

The top gainers included Hwang Capital (Malaysia) Bhd, Panasonic Malaysia Manufacturing Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Aturmaju Resources Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, LPI Capital Bhd and Hong Leong Industries Bhd.

Asian shares fell to near 10-week lows on Tuesday and the U.S. dollar pared some of its recent losses, as investors worried about the likelihood of a U.S. interest rate increase in coming weeks, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.4%, taking its losses to nearly 5% so far this month and nearing its lowest levels since March 9, it said.

Kenanga IB Research said despite inching up 6.1 points or 0.38% to 1,634.89 yesterday, in tandem with regional markets, the FBM KLCI’s performance was still rather unexciting, underpinned by the lacklustre trading volume and negative market breadth of 451 decliners against 337 advancers.

It said that on the daily chart, the local bourse maintained its sideways trading pattern on the back of listless MACD histogram, as well as relative strength index indicator.

“With much on-going headwinds coming from the highly-anticipated interest rate hike by the US Fed come June and volatility in the ringgit and crude oil prices, we reckon that investors will mostly be kept at bay this week, while the FBM KLCI is still expected to trade downside-bias within 1,600-1,650 this week.

“Overhead resistance is seen at 1,640 (R1), followed by 1,650 (R2), while downside supports are noted at 1,620 (S1) and 1,600 (S2),” it said.