KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian bourse slid on Monday as investor sentiment remained weak ahead of the peak corporate earnings season.

       At 9.30am, the FBM KLCI was down 4.68 points to 1,526.54 amid a retreat in most of its constituent blue-chip counters.

       Kenanga Research, in its weekly technical outlook, said the FBMKLCI could be swinging sideways in the near term following from last week's market rebound.

       "With the big caps on the Malaysian bourse – as tracked by the FBMKLCI (which is currently down 5.9% YTD) – likely to be rangebound, the micro- and small-caps may still face continued profit-taking pressure amid ongoing selling activity.

       "This comes as both the FBM Small Cap Index (up 8.2%) and the FBM Fledgling Index (+9.9%) are still showing positive YTD returns while the FBM ACE Index has already lost 35.0% thus far this year," it said.

       For the coming term, it said the benchmark index could oscillate between its immediate support and resistance thresholds of 1,510 and 1,550.

       The brokerage noted that this will be the last full trading week before the closing share price data is determined as of the cut-off date on Nov 22, which will be used for the upcoming semi-annual review of the FBM KLCI index constituents.

       On the blue-chip index, telcos were seen retreating led by Maxis falling eight sne ti RM4.53, Axiata sliding six sen to RM3.90 and Digi slipping one sen to RM4.22.

       Press Metal shed nine sen to RM5.25, while bank counters in the red included CIMB down three sen to RM5.01 and Hong Leong Bank falling 18 sen to RM18.04.

       Meanwhile, low-budget long-haul airline AirAsia X remained one of the top traded stocks after it received creditors' approval for its debt restructuring plan last Friday.

       The carrier was flat at 7.5 sen with 41.64 million shares exchanging hands.

       The top traded stock was MMAG, up 0.5 sen to 10 sen with 128.46 million shares traded.