KUALA LUMPUR: The local market fell slightly in early morning trade as investors continued to digest recent gains, although losses appear capped by ongoing positive sentiment during the earnings season.
At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI was up 1.64 points to 1,514.98.
There were 150 gainers compared with 114 decliners.
Trading volume was 120.74 million shares valued at RM93.54mil.
"Given the US markets are still finding its direction, we believe the local bourse may take a breather amid softer inflow of foreign funds and the FBM KLCI might be resisted along its 200-day simple moving average zone.
"Investors will be focusing on the ongoing reporting season to position themselves in the stock markets," said Malacca Securities Research in a report.
Bank stocks took a tumble with Maybank retreating three sen to RM8.92, Public Bank sliding one sen to RM4.64, CIMB falling two sen to RM5.45 and Hong Leong Bank losing 18 sen to RM20.68.
Offsetting some index losses however was PETRONAS Chemicals, which rose 10 sen to RM8.85.
Hartalega
meanwhile continued its rebound from deeply oversold levels, rising one sen to RM1.81.
Topping the actives list was Agmo, which continued to push higher on its second day of trading on the ACE Market. The digital solutions specialist rose five sen to 83.5 sen on 19.85 million shares traded.
Other top actives included JAKS up two sen to 29.5 sen, and Serba Dinamik unchanged at 9.5 sen.
Oil and gas-related counter meanwhile were also on the rise on higher crude oil prices. Hibiscus Petroleum added 2.5 sen to 92 sen and Bumi Armada rose one sne to 36.5 sen.
