KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 16): The FBM KLCI remained in negative territory at the midday break today as traders sold into strength and decliners led advancers.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI dipped 3.06 points to 1,706.73.

Losers led gainers by 433 to 290, while 380 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.37 billion shares valued at RM864.44 million.

The top losers included Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, Time dotCom Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd, Hai-O Enterprise Bhd, JHM Consolidation Bhd and Batu Kawan Bhd.

The actives included Asia Bioenergy Technologies Bhd, Dagang NeXchange Bhd, Metronic Global Bhd, IFCA MSC Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Malaysia Building Society Bhd, Iris Corp Bhd and RGB International Bhd.

The gainers included DanaInfra Nasional Bhd, Heineken Malaysia Bhd, Far East Holdings Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, DKSH Holdings (M) Bhd and Gas Malaysia Bhd.

Asian stocks edged to new 19-month highs on Thursday with gains underpinned by an ongoing rally on Wall Street while the US dollar came in for a bout of profit-taking after its recent bounce, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2% to its highest since July 2015. It is up by a tenth this year thanks to more optimistic earnings expectations and an unwinding of bearish emerging market bets, it said.

Kenanga IB Research said while gains were seen among regional markets inspired by the strong overnight close in Wall Street, the FBM KLCI only managed to close the day flat by inching 0.89 points or 0.05% higher at 1,709.7 after clawing back its midday loses.

It said the broader market was also mixed with 469 decliners outpacing 418 advancers.

The research house said that on the technical front, the FBM KLCI is still hovering firmly above the psychological 1,700 (S1) level.

"Nonetheless, relative strength index and Stochastic are waning from their respective overbought zone to signal weakness in the bulls, suggesting that the key index could take further breather in the immediate term before resuming its uptrend.

"Overhead levels are envisaged at 1,729 (R1) followed by 1,744 (R2), while support levels are noted at 1,700 (S1) and 1,680 (S2)," it said.