KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): The FBM KLCI fell at the midday break on Tuesday and looked poised to extend its losses for a fourth day running.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI reversed its earlier gains and fell 7.56 points to 1,770.71. The index had earlier risen to its intra morning high of 1,789.42.

Market breadth turned negative with 480 losers and 251 gainers, while 293 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.13 billion shares valued at RM926.99 million.

The top losers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Aeon Credit (M) and MISC Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included KNM Group Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, Minetech Resources Bhd, Sumatec Resources Bhd, Dialog Group Bhd and SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd.

The gainers included Perduren (M) Bhd, Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd, UMW Oil & Gas Corporation Bhd, Gamuda Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd, Genting Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and Hong Leong Capital Bhd.

Regionally, Asian equities were mixed on Tuesday, with a rebound in crude oil and other commodity prices favouring the stock markets of resource-exporting countries, while the likes of Tokyo's Nikkei struggled, according to Reuters.

Crude oil held on to its gains after rebounding sharply overnight from five-year lows. The bounce in commodities was also a good omen for commodity currencies such as the Canadian and Australian dollars, and also helped gold to bounce back, it said.

BIMB Securities Research said that in Asia, equities were quite mixed on Monday as investors took profit on certain markets.

It said that locally the FBM KLCI was hit badly by news that Pertonas will cut its capex following the sharp decline in crude prices.

“This reverberated to an across the board selldown on equities as the benchmark index was down a massive 42.62 points at 1,778.27 breaking multiple support levels along the way.

“Though we expect the market to improve over time, we expect there to be further weakness in the immediate support level at 1,770.

“Yesterday, there was a net outflow of foreign funds amounting RM111.4 million clearly showing the absence of any buying support,” it said.