KUALA LUMPUR: Investors looked undecided on Bursa Malaysia in Monday morning trade following the previous week's losses, which took the benchmark index below the 1,700 level.
Asian markets opened on Monday to continued downwards pressure as the trade war escalated over evidence that the trade war was likely to escalate. The Shanghai composite Index, however, rebounded slightly following the heavy losses over the previous week.
The FBM KLCI oscillated between rises and dips in the morning session and ended at midday just 0.65 points at 1,693.50. Volume was notably soft with 1.15 billion shares worth a value of RM732.32mil traded. There were 395 decliners versus 297 advancers and 358 counters unchanged.
Leading the fall, CIMB bank dropped 17 sen to RM5.64. Digi also weighed with a six sen slide to RM4.31 while Maxis slipped three sen to RM5.47.
PUtting in a positive performance, Petronas Chemicals gained seven sen to RM8.47, Petronas Gas rose 28 sen to RM17.64 and Sime Darby Plantation
put on four sen to RM5.32.
Nestle, meanwhile, added 40 sen to RM147.50.
On the broader market F&N gained 32 sen to RM38.92, SAB added 19 sen to RM3.90 and Scientex moved 11 sen higher to RM7.08.
Leading losses, Magni-Tech added 66 sen to RM4.44 while SCGM dropped 28 sen to RM1.54.
In commodities, Opec's resolution to moderately increase production triggered a fall in prices although analysts say global oil markets will remain relatively tight this year.
WTI crude dropped 17 cents to US$68.41 a barrel while Brent crude skidded RM1.31 to US$74.24 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit 0.29% to 4.0140, and strengthened 0.12% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9455. It was relatively unchanged against the pound sterling at 5.3231.
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