KUALA LUMPUR: Most key Asian markets kicked off the new week on Monday, Feb 8 in the red, with Japan and Hong Kong's benchmark indices below their psychological levels as worries about fiscal problems in Europe continued to dent investor confidence.

At Bursa Malaysia, banks were among the major decliners. At 10am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.14 point to 1,247.76. Turnover was 112.3 million shares done valued at RM133 million. There were 171 gainers, 138 losers and 162 stocks unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell below the key 10,000 level earlier. At 10am,  it was down 0.49% to 10,007.98 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.5% lower at 19,577.22  and Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.27% to 2,931.4 while Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.21% to 2,689.22.

Light crude oil rose 64 cents to US$71.83 while US spot gold rose 77 cents to US$1,067.07.

Hwang DBS Vickers Research said nine out of 10 regional indices that it tracked ended in the red last Friday with Taiwan (-4.3%), China shares listed in Hong Kong (-4.1%) and Hong Kong (-3.3%) being the top three losers. Malaysian bourse was also not spared as our benchmark FBM KLCI dropped 17.1 points (-1.4%) to 1,247.90, bringing its weekly accumulated lost totaled 11.3 index points (-0.9%).

"Nevertheless, we are likely to see a technical rebound after market opens today as investors' confidence may be lifted by the outcome of the G-7 (consists of U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Canada) meeting which wrapped up last Saturday, that they would continue to work together to calm global markets and sustain an economic rebound," it said.

Hwang DBS Vickers Research said the FBM KLCI which broke below its immediate support turned resistance line of 1,255 on last Friday may find its strength to surpass this hurdle today.

Rimbunan Sawit fell the most, down 21 sen to RM1.21 with 2,000 shares done while TSM gave up 19 sen to RM2.50 and Toyo Ink 10 sen to RM1.65.

Public Bank fell eight sen to RM11.32, Maybank seven sen ti RM6.74 and CIMB six sen to RM12.36. Proton fell six sen to RM3.97 and Tan Chong six sen to RM2.93.

Genting rose the most, up 14 sen to RM6.92 with 3.09 million shares done while CSC Steel added seven sen to RM1.60 following fresh corporate development.

Interest in Genting was sparked off by reports that Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) was awarded its casino licence over the weekend.

As for CSC Steel, OSK Research upgraded its forecast upwards by 30.8% for FY10 and arrived at a new target  price of RM2.22 after adding its projected net cash per share for FY10 to its 6.0 times FY10 EPS valuation.