KUALA LUMPUR: After mild gains in the previous session, the domestic market could remain with a downward bias given the weak market undertone.
According to TA Securities Research, most investors remained sidelined pending improvement in sentiment.
While the US market saw relief last Friday following a resolution to the US debt ceiling impasse, higher-than-expected consumer spending could keep a tight lid on positive sentiment.
At the opening bell, Malaysia's benchmark index was up 1.11 points to 1,406.04.
However, shortly after, the FBM KLCI took a sharp downward turn, shaving over five points off the reference price to cross below 1,400-point psychological support.
TA said in its review that the key chart supports from the recent low of 1,391 and last October's low of 1,372 must hold to prevents a test of strong charters supports at 1,350, 1,320 and 1,300.
Meanwhile, immediate resistance stays at 1,450, with the leveling 200-day moving average at 1,456, and 1,480 then 1,500 acting as stronger resistance levels.
Weighing on the blue-chip index, CelcomDigi dropped six sen to Rm4.50, Press Metal
shaved 12 sen to RM4.78 and Tenaga Nasional fell 11 sen to RM9.64.
Other laggards included Axiata down four sen to RM2.73, IOI falling seven sen to RM3.88 and Maxis sliding four sen to RM4.22.
Leading the actives list on the market, DNeX was down 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen, YTL rose 1.5 sen to 91.5 sn and Meta Bright was unchanged at 17.5 sen.
