KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI erased gains in the closing minutes of Monday trading to end the day on a flat note.
The local market saw some early interest with the FBM KLCI picking up as much as 16 points in early trade.
However, the momentum fizzled out as it became apparent that investors were exiting their positions ahead of the two-day break.
Bursa Malaysia is closed following the morning session today and will re-open for trading on Thursday.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 0.08 points to 1,683.61. Trading volume was 1.04 billion shares valued at RM880.66mil. There were 385 advancers versus 280 gainers and 322 counters unchanged.
From a technical perspective, the index remained trapped in consolidation mode although it remains afloat of the 50-day simple moving average.
Maxis was the leading decliner on the index with a 19 sen drop to RM5.56. Other notable losers for the day were Petronas Gas, slipping 42 sen to RM17.66, and Petronas Dagangan falling 44 sen to RM25.94.
Among top gainers, IHH rose nine sen to RM5.69, CIMB added three sen to RM5.65 and Maybank gained three sen to RM9.57.
Top active stocks were Bumi Armada
trading unchanged at 20 sen, Tatt Giap, rising one sen to 10 sen and Sapura Energy trading unchanged at 26.5 sen.
In Asian equity markets, Japan's Nikkei Index was 0.3% higher while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the morning up 0.2%
China's markets are closed for the entire week while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange closed today after the early session and will re-open on Friday.
In commodities, crude oil prices were slightly higher, extending on sharp gains over the previous session. US crude added two sen s to US$55.29 a barrel and Brent crude gained 10 cents to US$62.85 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit was marginally higher against the US dollar at 4.0930. It rose 0.3% against the pound sterling at 5.3520 and 0.4% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0234.
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