KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI failed to hold on to early gains, slipping 2.32 points by the end of the morning session to 1,698.71.
The index returned below the 1,700-point line, suggesting that the psychological resistance remained intact having fallen short of a convincing breach.
Trading volume on Bursa Malaysia was 1.2 billion shares valued at RM755.85mil. There were 392 decliners versus 268 advancers and 355 counters unchanged.
Sentiment in equities had improved on Friday following Washington's decision to temporarily reopen the government, sparking a rally on Wall Street.
Asian markets showed slight optimism over the development on Monday, even as investors speculated over the US-China trade talks that are scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday.
The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.4% and South Korea's Kospi Index climbed 0.3%.
Japan's Nikkei Index bucked the trend with a 0.3% slide into the red.
Southeast Asian indices were also mostly positive, although the FBM KLCI and the Jakarta Composite Index incurred slight losses.
Petronas Chemicals slipped back six sen to RM8.63 on profit-taking following a positive performance on Friday. TNB shed four sen to RM13.60 and CIMB dropped three sen to RM5.65.
On the advancing end, Digi gained nine sen to RM4.64, Axiata rose four sen to RM4.12 and MISC climbed three sen to RM6.71.
Suiwah was the top performing stock on the broader market, surging 50 sen or 22.9% to RM2.68.
The counter has been on a rally since slipping to a near-five-year low of RM1.92 on Dec 26, 2018, on news that its major shareholder is bidding to take it private by way of a selective capital reduction and repayment exercise.
Top active counters included Sapura Energy
rising one sen to 29 sen, Bumi Armada losing 0.5 sen to 22.5 sen and JAG trading unchanged at 7.5 sen.
Oil price came under selling pressure on Monday as US energy firms added rigs for the first time this year while news of the Chinese economic slowdown cast fears over demand.
WTI crude fell 34 cents to US$53.35 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 27 cents to US$61.37 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit rose 0.4% to 4.1100 against the US dollar but fell 0.7% against the pound sterling at 5.4261 and 0.2% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0407.
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