KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): The FBM KLCI remained in negative territory at mid-morning today on muted technical outlook, and dragged by select index-linked blue chips.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI shed 3.16 points to 1,592.65.

Losers edged gainers by 257 to 250, while 312 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 618.11 million shares valued at RM249.45 million.

The losers included Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, United Plantations Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, BLD Plantation Bhd, Hong Leong Industries Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd and Axiata Group Bhd.

The actives included Vortex Consolidated Bhd, Alam Maritim Resources Bhd, TDM Bhd, Perdana Petroleum Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd and Melewar Industrial Group Bhd.

The gainers included KESM Industries Bhd, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Heineken Malaysia Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.

Reuters reported Asian shares neared a 20-month top on Monday as Wall Street extended its run of record peaks on solid US economic data and lashes of liquidity from the Federal Reserve.

Oil prices jumped as oilfields in southwest Libya began shutting down after forces loyal to Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar closed a pipeline, potentially reducing national output to a fraction of its normal level, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said in the US, the Dow's uptrend is fairly intact amid fading US-Iran geopolitical tensions and de-escalation of US-China trade tensions coupled with the Senate's approval of a new trade deal between the US and Mexico and Canada on Thursday.

"In wake of the ongoing healthy 4Q19 reporting season, we remain optimistic the Dow could advance towards 29,500-30,000 territory in the next few weeks, with support set around 28,500-28,700 levels.

"We opine that KLCI should maintain the upward momentum to test our envisaged 1,600-1,613 zones amid the bullish Wall St performance.

"However, further rally beyond 1,613 is likely to be capped by the by the long Chinese New Year break, expectation of another soft February reporting season coupled with the local political noises.

"Nevertheless, traders could look into construction and technology as well as oil and gas stocks as volumes were building up over the past few trading days," it said.