By DASHVEENJIT KAUR 

Two days left to the 14th general election (GE14) and the local stock market continues its downtrend trend after opening slightly higher and retreating thereafter at midday today.

Investors has been on the sidelines ahead of GE14.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 12.91 points at 1,828.92 from Friday’s close of 1,841.83.

The index opened 0.73-of-a-point higher at 1,842.56 before retreating lower at 9.05am by 4.89 points at 1,836.94.

Analysts reckoned that most investors would remain on the sidelines ahead of the general elections as Malaysia was still deemed a political market.

The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index also declined by  0.4%.

On the broader market losers led gainers 683 to 138, while 305 counters were unchanged, and 736 untraded.

Volume stood at 723.65 million units valued at RM1.09 billion.

According to Bloomberg data, 26 of 30 shares in the benchmark index fell, while 3 rose. The Malaysia FTSE is up 1.8 percent so far this year.

The index is 3.5% below its 52-week high of 1,896.03 reached on April 20, 2018 and 7% above its 52-week low of 1,708.48 on on Dec 5, 2017.

Top gainers included Allianz Malaysia Bhd, British American Tobacco Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd, and Vertice Bhd.

Meanwhile, among the laggards were Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Dutch Lady (Malaysia) Bhd, Panasonic Manufacturing (Malaysia) Bhd, Mercury Industries Bhd and Ayer Holdings Bhd.

The Malaysian Ringgit was unchanged at 3.9418 against the US dollar.