For the month, the FBM KLCI is down 3.18% and year-to-date, it is down 8.02%.
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips managed to bounce off their early low on Monday but were still in the red at midday as selling of CIMB Group
eased but MISC weighed on the FBM KLCI.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 0.56 of a point or 0.03% to 1,763.11. Turnover was 887.42 million shares valued at RM597.38mil. There were 269 gainers, 364 losers and 445 counters unchanged.
The ringgit slipped against the US dollar by 0.1% to 4.2970 and was also 0.1% lower against the pound sterling at 5.5839 and fell 0.16% to the euro at 4.9044. However, it edged up 0.01% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1185.
On the external front, China stocks kicked off the mid-year earnings season on a cautious note on Monday, as optimism about companies' interim results was offset by concerns of economic slowdown in the second half and lingering fears of monetary tightening, Reuters reported.
But Hong Kong stocks started July trading higher, as financials - the biggest beneficiary of the newly-launched "Bond Connect" with China - rose while small- and mid-caps gained on the back of new Beijing rules letting insurers buy Hong Kong shares via the Shenzhen Connect.
At the lunch break, China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.4%, to 3,653.43 while the Shanghai Composite Index was unchanged at 3,193.72, Reuters reported.
At Bursa, CIMB was down two sen to RM6.56, off the early low of RM6.40 as investors had overreacted to about its exposure to the closure of 7-Eleven stores in Indonesia.
Hong Leong Bank rose six se to RM15.72, AmBank gained five sen to RM4.93, Maybank added two sen to RM9.65, RHB Bank one sen to RM5.07 but Public Bank shed two sen to RM20.30.
US light crude oil rose 30 cents to US$46.18 and Brent edged up eight cents to US$48.85. Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Dagangan added two sen each to RMRM7.12 and RM24.12 while Petronas Gas lost 10 sen to RM18.44.
MISC fell 10 sen to RM7.36 and erased 0.73 of a point from the KLCI, Tenaga shed four sen to RM14.10 but IHH Healthcare added three sen to RM5.78.
As for telcos, Axiata and Maxis lost four sen each to RM4.79 and RM5.51, Telekom shed three sen to RM6.62 while Digi was flat at RM5.
Chip maker MPI was the biggest loser, down 26 sen to RM13.22.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM37 to RM2,496 per tonne. IOI Corp rose three sen to RM4.48, Sime was flat at RM9.50 while KL Kepong lost eight sen to RM24.80 and PPB Group was down 20 sen to RM16.96.
Magni-Tech fell 11 sen to RM7.44 on profit taking while Prolexus' disappointing results and downgrade saw it falling 12 sen to RM1.43.
However, UMW rose 20 sen to RM5.71, UEM Edgenta rebounded 18 sen to RM2.82 and SAM Engineering nine sen higher at RM7.90.
Spot gold fell US$3.61 to US$1,238.
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