KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia returned below the 1,500 psychological level in early morning trade as a slump in Wall Street equities last Friday kept the cautious sentiment elevated.
At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was down 3.24 points to 1,498.77, retracing some of the gains made in the previous week.
Last Friday, the benchmark index saw a week-on-week gain of 13.1 points ot 0.9%, which was its first weekly increase in nine weeks.
According to Kenanga Research, the looming year-end is going to sap trading activity from the market.
However, it said the local bourse could still chalk up more gains this year after suffering a 6% decline over the last nine weeks due to the traditionally strong performance in December.
"This has been the case in nine of the past 10 years – including the most recent six years – with an average monthly return of +2.2% since 2011.
"For history to repeat itself, the FBMKLCI has to rise above the end-November close of 1,514 in the next two weeks, which represents just 12.0 points or 0.8% from its current level," it said.
From a technical view, the research firm said the FBM KLCI could could attempt to overcome its first resistance hurdle of 1,510 after bouncing off the immediate support threshold of 1,475.
"This being the case, the FBMKLCI may be on its way to plot an intermittent double-bottom pattern, although any further progress is expected to be blocked by our next resistance barrier of 1,550," it added.
Meanwhile, there was some positive action in rubber gloves on Bursa Malaysia as Top Glove rose 10 sne to RM2.26, Hartalega climbed nine sne to RM5.41 and Supermax gained seven sen to RM1.49.
However, Tenaga dropped 13 sne to RM9.38 as the leading laggard on the FBM KLCI.
Other top decliners included Sime Darby Plantation falling seven sen to RM3.57and CIMB shedding four sen to RM5.28.
Among top actives, ATA IMS dropped one sen to 67 sen, Borneo Oil was unchanged at 2.5 sen and Sapura Energy was flat at 4.5 sen.