KUALA LUMPUR: Investors traded on a consolidation path on Monday as they braced for a raft of corporate results scheduled to be released this week.
As trading paused for the midday break, the FBM KLCI was down 0.21 points to 1,619.19. The key index had been trading within a narrow range of 1,618.36 to 1,622.4 over the morning session.
There was also some profit-taking seen in the lower liners, leading to a negative market breadth of 578 decliners to 488 gainers.
The share turnover was 3.42 billion valued at RM2bil.
Blue chips leading the FBM KLCI lower included Kuala Lumpur Kepong down 18 sen to RM22.02, Nestle falling 60 sen to RM127.40 and Sime Darby shedding eight sen to RM2.87.
Notable laggards over the broader market included Heitech Padu sliding 50 sen to RM1.92, Heineken falling 24 sen to RM24.32 and MSM shaving 16 sen to RM2.69.
Top actives were Dnex up 2.5 sne to 47.5 sen, PHB flat at 0.5 sen and AHB rising 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen.
Meanwhile, key regional markets inched higher on mild optimism ahead of the core US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) report, Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, scheduled for this Friday.
Economists are projecting the US PCE to fall further, indicating easing inflation, and reinforcing hopes for an interest rate cut come this September.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.27% to 38,748, and China's composite index gained 0.37% to 3,100.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.31% to 18,665 while Singapore's Straits Times index edged 0.13% higher to 3,320.
