KUALA LUMPUR: Mild selling pressure in early trade on Tuesday, March 16 pushed the benchmark FBM KLCI lower with CIMB among the decliners.

At 9.24am, the FBM KLCI fell 1.25 points to 1,298.42. Turnover was 67 million shares valued at RM34.8 million. There were 105 gainers, 75 losers and 114 stocks unchanged.

CIMB Equities Research said the FBM KLCI fell for the third day in a row, losing 0.9% to 1,299.67 on Monday. This also indicates that the resistance trend line drawn from its November 2009 to January 2010 highs is a strong one.

Prices also appear to be reluctant to stay above the 1,300 levels for a longer time. As prices fall below the 1,300 psychological level, expect volatility to rise in tandem. For now, 1,334 will be its immediate resistance while further upswing should push prices towards the 1,344-1,354, 3rd March 2008 gap.

On the downside, it said the next key support level is 1,285. At any time where prices were to fall below its key SMAs (at 1,281-1,275), it would also mean that the uptrend is likely exhausted.

CIMB was the top loser, down 10 sen to RM13.58 with 77,600 shares done. PLUS shed five sen to RM3.32, MAHB eased three sen to RM4.67 and RHB Cap eased two sen to RM5.56.

Nam Fatt fell seven sen to 11.5 sen with 8.4 million shares done. Keck Seng eased five sen to RM5.47 after the recent run-up.

Hume Industries rose 21 sen to RM4.50 after Spectrum Arrangement Sdn Bhd, which intends to take Hume Industries (M) Bhd private, is revising its offer price to RM4.50 from RM4.30.

Top Glove rose 14 sen to RM12.32 while Ho Hup added 11 sen to RM1.20.

\EON Cap advanced 10 sen after the latest development at the boardroom. OSK Research is maintaining its Neutral outlook on EON Capital Bhd and target price of RM6.60 after most EONCap shareholders voted in favor of the appointment of the seven new directors into the board.

Measat gained 10 sen to RM2.19. Measat is a company related to pay-tv operator Astro All Asia Networks plc. Astro is mulling a corporate exercise that could see some cash returned to shareholders. Astro remains suspended until Wednesday.