KUALA LUMPUR (June 13): The FBM KLCI pared some of its losses and was down 0.57% at the midday break today as regional markets fell.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI lost 9.3 points to 1,631.92. The index had earlier fallen to its intra-morning low of 1,622.88.

Losers beat gainers by 528 to 163, while 294 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 758.3 million shares valued at RM506.02 million.

The top losers included British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, DanaInfra Nasional Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, P.I.E. Industrial Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd, Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd and Pestech International Bhd.

The actives included SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd, Borneo Oil Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, Vsolar Group Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd, Vivocom Intl Holdings Bhd and AWC Bhd.

The gainers included the Hang Seng Index put warrants, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, PJ Development Holdings Bhd, Shangri-La Hotels (Malaysia) Bhd, SHH Resources Holdings Bhd, Johore Tin Bhd and MNRB Holdings Bhd.

Asian stocks fell the most in over two months and the Japanese yen soared on Monday as riskier assets took a hammering before key central bank meetings this week and as nervous investors awaited a referendum that could see Britain exiting the European Union, according to Reuters.

Sapping confidence further over recent days has been a steady drip of economic data that has highlighted an underpowered world economy despite years of massive easings delivered by global central banks, it said.

Kenanga IB Research said the FBM KLCI started off last week on a brighter note by recording two straight days of gains before losing steam to slip into the red for the next three days.

It said that on the daily chart, it was observed that the FBM KLCI is retracing from its strong technical rebound earlier last week.

The research house said the overall technical picture was looking bearish — bias at this juncture underpinned by the bearish crossover seen by the MACD histogram as well as the hook down in both RSI and Stochastic.

Besides, it said the retracement of the Stochastic from its deep overbought state is still at the preliminary stages; hence further consolidation by the benchmark index is very much likely for the week.

"We reckon that the investors will be very much kept at bay for the week given that Crude oil prices had started to ease, while all eyes will be hooked onto the key US economic data reports as well as US Fed meeting this week for more clues on the market direction.

"Downside-bias trading by the FBM KLCI within 1,600–1,650 this week is expected, whereby resistance is capped at 1,650 (R1) followed by 1,670 (R2) while supports are noted at 1,640 (S2) and 1,620 (S2) respectively," it said.