KUALA LUMPUR: The market sentiment on the domestic market continued to sour at Monday's opening bell with the key FBM KLCI failing to rebound after six straight sessions of declines.

       The benchmark index started on a slide, losing 0.89 point to 1,547.62 at the opening bell before turning lower.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 4.07 points to 1,544.44.

       The downtrend on Bursa Malaysia comes despite a return of foreign investors to the local market. Over the four trading days of the previous week, foreign funds recorded a net weekly inflow of RM126mil.

       Local retailers registered net buying of RM212mil while domestic institutions net sold RM338mil in local equities.

       After three straight weeks of losses, the market remains on shaky ground.

       "There may still be some more downside risk ahead with the bears currently outnumbering the bulls.

       "After failing to break away from the key 200-day SMA line, the emergence of fresh bearish technical signals triggered by the benchmark index’s crossing back below the upper Bollinger Band, and the %K line of the stochastics indicator cutting under the %D line in the overbought territory, means that the market bellwether will probably face further weakness going forward," said Kenanga Research in its weekly technical outlook.

       The research house pegged resistance at the former support of 1,550, and immediate support at 1,510.

       Among blue-chips, Press Metal was down 15 sen to RM5.64, Public Bank dropped five sne to RM4.01 and Petronas Gas fell 48 sen to RM16.90.

       Top Glove remained under selling pressure following its recent earnings result, sliding six sen to RM3 amid downward revisions in its outlook.

       Among the few gainers, Axiata was up five sen to RM3.96 and Tenaga Nasional gained three sen to RM9.93.

       Top actives on the market were KNM up 0.5 sen to 27 sen, Avillion unchanged at 13.5 sen and Focus flat at 5.5 sen.

       Meanwhile, IGB Commercial REIT approached limit down on its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia, losing 29.5 sen or 29.5% to 70.5 sen a share as the time of writing.

       The counter, which has a reference price of RM1 a share, had opened 27 sen lower at 73 sen.