KUALA LUMPUR: Asian markets opened on a softer note on Monday ahead of an eventful week of central bank meetings, corporate earnings, US inflation and payrolls.
Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's Kospi both slipped in early trade, with technology stocks leading the declines.
Back home, the FBM KLCI opened 1.55 points lower at 1,767.59.
At 9.10am, the market was one point lower at 1,768.15 with 136 lagging counters, 124 gainers and 213 unchanged. Turnover was 174 million shares with a value of RM68mil.
Kenanga Research said in its technical outlook that the index has a positive bias due to a bullish stance in the MACS and RSI indicators.
"From here, we expect a continuation towards next resistance at 1,790 (R1) and 1,830 (R2) further up.
"Meanwhile, support levels can be identified at 1,720 (S1) and 1,700 (S2)," it said.
Among the actively traded stocks, MRCB slipped half a sen to 80.5 sen, Velesto
gained one sen to 31 sen and Sapura Energy gained half a sen to 61 sen.
Among KLCI counters, Tenaga led declines with a 12 sen dip to RM14.98. Hong Leong Bank dropped six sen to RM18.70 while Public Bank slipped six sen to RM18.70.
Meanwhile, Digi gained seven sen to RM4.61 while MISC rose five sen to RM6.60.
Oil prices showed mixed results on Monday as WTI rose on the back of strong US economic growth figures while Brent slipped following gains in the previous week.
WTI was up 16 cents to US$68.85 a barrel while Brent crude slid 13 cents to US$74.16 a barrel.
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