KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): The FBM KLCI opened lower today in line with the tentative regional markets, weighed by losses at select blue chips.

At 9am, the FBM KLCI fell 4.70 points to 1,695.61.

The top losers included Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, MISC Bhd, UEM Edgenta Bhd, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd and Genting Bhd.

Asian stock markets were tentative on Tuesday as they braced for a run of policy announcements from the world's major central banks this week, with all eyes on the Bank of Japan's meeting later in the day after it stunned markets in January by adopting negative rates, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 percent in early trade, but still near 2-1/2-month highs touched on Monday. It was dragged down by a 0.4 percent fall in resource-heavy Australian shares following a drop in oil and commodity prices, it said.

JF Apex Securities Research in a market preview today said US markets were mixed overnight as oil prices dropped and ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting later tonight.

It said that earlier, European stocks closed higher as investors anticipate a slew of central bank meetings and interest rate decisions this week.

“On the local market, the FBM KLCI closed 3.77 points higher at 1700.31 points after coming off an intra-day high of 1708.10 points.

“Following the mixed performance in the US and Europe, the FBM KLCI is expected to trend sideways below the resistance of 1710 points,” it said.