KUALA LUMPUR: The recent rout in the domestic market showed no signs of abating on Monday as investors continued to sell down equities.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI had shed 5.98 points to 1,558.36. The overall market was negative with only 91 gainers compared with 250 decliners.

       According to Kenanga Research, sentiment is expected to stay weak for the time being given the previous week's sell-down.

       "Investors may turn defensive-minded after encountering an almost across the board selling, which slammed the big caps (with the FBMKLCI down 2.3% last week) as well as the mid-, small- and micro- caps – as tracked by the losses suffered by the FBM70 Index (-2.8%), the FBM Small Cap Index (-1.1%), the FBM Fledgling Index (-1.7%) and the FBM ACE Index (-1.5%)," it said.

       It added that the FBM KLCI had retraced back to its mid-March levels and is expected to retreat further.

       "Based on the negative technical signals generated by the DMI Plus crossing below the DMI Minus and the ongoing unwinding of the stochastic indicator from an overbought territory, the FBMKLCI could pull back deeper to test our immediate support level of 1,550 (S1).

       "Should S1 give way, our next support threshold currently stands at 1,510 (S2).

       "On the upside, any intermittent technical rebound will likely be capped at our support-turned-resistance hurdle of 1,600 (R1)," it said.

       Meanwhile, Serba Dinamik was in focus as it resumed trading after a suspension period that started in Oct 22 last year.

       At the time of writing, the stock was down 20 sen to 15 sen a share on the back of 165.89 million shares, making it the most actively traded counter of the morning.

       Its warrants meanwhile were down 4.5 sen to 2.5 sen.

       Other stocks that saw heavy trading interest included Pertama Digital up three sen to 93.5 sen, Bumi Armada down 0.5 sen to 42.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum up one sen to RM1.41.

       Financial heavyweights that were seen dragging on the FBM KLCI were Maybank down one sne to RM8.99, Public Bank falling four sen to RM4.55, Petronas Chemicals sliding four sen to RM10.16 and Sime Darby Plantation dropping eight sen to RM5.01.