KUALA LUMPUR: Asian equities came under pressure on Monday as it was announed that China's economy slowed slightly in the second quarter.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.28 points to 1,718.65. There were 1.11 billion shares traded with a value of RM681.36mil. Market breadth was negative with 364 decliners versus 314 gainers and 369 counters unchanged.
Digi saw gains in the morning session on the heels of its earnings results released last Friday. The telco rose five sen to RM4.21.
Maxis was also in positive territory, adding three sen to RM5.47 while Axiata gained two sen to RM4.19.
Among banks, Maybank moved four sen higher to RM9.55,but CIMB lost seven sen to RM5.65, Hong Leong Bank dropped 16 sen to RM18.75 and RHB slid nine sen to RM5.23.
Glove makers were among the best performing counters in the morning session, led by Top Glove rising 35 sen to RM10.26, Kossan, gaining 13 sen to RM8.60 and Supermax climbing seven sen to RM4.43.
Other leading gainers included consumer stocks including Dutch Lady
rising 14 sen to RM66.98, Carlsberg adding 24 sen to RM19.36 and F&N putting on 10 sen to RM38.
Slipping back, UMW lost eight sen to RM6.10, MSM gave up 11 sen to RM3.56 and Dialog slid seven sen to RM3.26.
Oil prices were on the backfoot on Monday as the resumption of output from a major Liban oil field continued to weigh on sentiment.
WTI crude was down 41 cents to US$70.60 a barrel while Brent crude fell 46 cents to US$74.87 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was marginally stronger against the greenback at 4.0491. It was slightly weaker against the Singapore dollat at 2.9675 and nearly 1% down against the pound sterling at 5.3610.
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