At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.52 points to 1,496.03 from 1,501.55 on Friday, with almost two thirds of the 30 index-linked companies ending in negative territory.

The benchmark index, which opened 0.03 of-a-point better at 1,501.58 this morning, fluctuated between 1,490.41 and 1,501.58 throughout the trading session.

On the broader market, losers beat gainers 464 to 323, while 410 counters were unchanged, 1,061 not traded, and eight others suspended.

Total turnover dropped to 2.19 billion units worth RM1.33 billion from 2.61 billion units worth RM1.62 billion on Friday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional markets ended mixed following different reactions to the US economic data.

He also said some investors were wary of further aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve following a stronger-than-expected US jobs data last Friday.

On the local front, he expects sentiments to remain cautious given the increasing market volatility across the region.

“The local market may turn positive due to persistent net inflow of foreign funds which reached RM6.7 billion year to date,” he told Bernama.

As such, he said, the FBM KLCI is likely to trend sideways with an uptrend bias within the 1,485 to 1,515 range for the week, while the next resistance level would likely be at 1,500 followed by 1,530, with the support level at 1,460.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped a sen to RM8.88, Petronas Chemicals fell seven sen to RM8.73, IHH Healthcare eased two sen to RM6.41, and Tenaga Nasional lost 12 sen to RM8.35.

Public Bank added a sen to RM4.64 and CIMB gained three sen to RM5.28.

Of the actives, Metronic and Zen Tech trimmed a sen each to 6.5 sen and 2.5 sen respectively, Sapura Energy was flat at 4.5 sen, MyEG shed 2.5 sen to 78.5 sen, and Dagang NeXchange bagged 1.5 sen to 89 sen.