KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): The FBM KLCI remained in negative territory at mid-morning today in line with the weakness at most regional markets ahead of the swearing in ceremony for Donald Trump to take office as President of the United States.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.54 points to 1,665.97. The index had earlier dipped to a low of 1,664.94.

The top losers included UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd, Allianz Malaysia Bhd, Negri Sembilan Oil Palms Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd, Southern Acids (M) Bhd, Only World Group Holdings Bhd and Pecca Group Bhd.

The actives included Icon Offshore Bhd, UMW Oil & Gas, SKH Consortium Bhd, TH Heavy Engineering Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Matang Bhd, JAG Bhd and IFCA MSC Bhd.

The gainers included UMW Holdings Bhd, LPI Capital Bhd, United U-Li Corp Bhd, Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd, Selangor Properties Bhd, Kim Loong Resources Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Scientex Bhd and Hong Leong Industries Bhd.

Caution was the name of the game in financial markets on Friday ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration later in the day, with Asian stocks and the US dollar pulling back and US Treasury yields hovering near their highest close this year, according to Reuters.

Investors were also awaiting fourth-quarter and full-year GDP data from China at 0200 GMT, for clues on how much momentum the world's second-largest economy is carrying into 2017, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said lacklustre buying interests are likely to prevail today as Trump's inauguration is set to unleash a cascade of stock market anxiety.

"As the Dow is trading below the 10-d SMA, we expect the index to trade on a downward bias view over the near term. Next support may be located around the 19,300–19,400 levels.

"Meanwhile, based on the trading activities yesterday, selling interest may extend ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays, given active volumes on small caps and ACE market shares over the past two weeks. Nevertheless, bargain hunting activities are likely to stay within the property and construction stocks," it said.