KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): The FBM KLCI remained lacklustre at mid-morning on Monday despite having reversed its earlier losses as investor sentiment remained cautious.

At 10.03am, the FBM KLCI added 0.17 points to 1,881.10.

The top gainers included Tahps, Genting Plantations, Teck Guan, United Plantations, KLK, Lii Hen, I-Bhd, Fima Corp and Hong Leong Industries.

Newly-listed Econpile Holdings Bhd was the most actively traded counter with 91.67 million shares done. The stock rose 18.52% or 10 sen to 64 sen.

The other actives included Sumatec, Opensys, MAS, Daya Materials and Instaco.

The losers included Hong Leong Capital, Takaful, Public Bank, Panasonic, MNRB, SPB, Gold IS, Nestle and Coastal Contracts.

Regionally, Asian share markets edged cautiously higher on Monday while the dollar stayed under pressure ahead of packed week of economic data that will test investor hopes for a pick up in the U.S., and global, economy, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was steady in morning trade. It gained 0.9 percent last week to be just under multi-month highs, aided by the prospect that interest rates in the major economies will remain near zero for many months to come, it said.

BIMB Securities Research in a note Monday said summertime settled into Wall Street on Friday as major stock indexes drifted slightly higher going into the weekend.

It said the listless day of trading left the stock market with a tiny loss for the week, adding that a handful of corporate results drove trading in some big names.

But it said that the overall market was essentially flat, and that the DJI Average rose 5.71 points, less than 0.1%, to close at 16,851.84.

The research house said that in Asia, markets were mostly in the red on Friday, weighed down by a weak performance on Wall Street and doubts about the strength of the US economy, which pushed bonds higher.

The worst performer was Japan's Nikkei 225, which fell 1.5% and regional markets, with the exception of Wellington and Mumbai, were posting losses, it said.

“Locally, the FBM KLCI closed in the red, weighed down by losses in Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional, as investors cashed out in tandem with the mostly weaker regional markets.

“The KLCI fell 9.04 points to 1,880.93. Turnover was 1.64 billion shares valued at RM1.803bn. There were 371 gainers, 393 decliners and 334 counters unchanged.

“The cautious mood at Bursa Malaysia was also in line with key Asian markets. We are expecting another lacklustre trading today with immediate support level is at 1,876/73 and immediate resistance at 1,885/1,891,” it said.