KUALA LUMPUR (July 23): The FBM KLCI pared some of its loss at mid-morning but remained lacklustre as technical indicators stayed downbeat.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.09 points to 1,655.31. The index had earlier slipped to a low of 1,654.73.

Gainers led losers by 279 to 183, while 290 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 699.56 million shares valued at RM315.80 million.

The decliners included Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Mulpha International Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, Eng Kah Corp Bhd, Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Bhd, Magni-Tech Industries Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd.

The actives included Excel Force MSC Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, Green Packet Bhd, i-Stone Group Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd and Ekovest Bhd.

The gainers included LTKM Bhd, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, G3 Global Bhd, Coastal Contracts Bhd, Excel Force, SAM Engineering & Equipment (M) Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd.

Expectations of policy easing by major central banks such as the US Federal Reserve propped up global stocks on Tuesday, while the pound sagged as Britain braced for a new prime minister who could pave the way for a no-deal exit from the European Union, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.02%, it said.

Affin Hwang Capital Research said the FBM KLCI Index fell 2.79 points or 0.17% on Tuesday, ending the session at 1655.40.

"Market breadth was negative with 296 gainers as compared to 507 losers.

"Trading volume was at 2.65 billion shares while value traded stands at RM1.54 billion. The index initially fell about 10 points before paring much of the losses later in the session.

"In terms of technical indicators, on the daily chart, MACD (moving average convergence divergence) has already made a bearish cross and is heading towards the '0' level. If a cross below materialises, anticipate the downward movement to escalate. Anticipate the index to move sideways with downward bias," it said.