KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eased early Tuesday with Public Bank weighing slightly on the FBM KLCI  while steel pole manufacturer Mestron Holdings was the most active on its trading debut on the ACE Market.

At 9.11am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.09 of a point or 0.01% to 1,638.31. Turnover was 216.36 million shares valued at RM67.59mil. There were 81 gainers, 108 losers and 200 stocks unchanged.

Asian stocks saw muted gains as markets entered a holding pattern ahead of this week’s key Federal Reserve decision. The dollar and Treasuries were little changed, Bloomberg reported.

Stocks ticked higher in Japan, Korea and Australia with little in the way of fresh catalysts.

At Bursa, Mestron was the most active with 144.55 million shares done. It added 2.5 sen to 18.5 sen but off the earlier high of 21 sen.

Recently listed Greatec added one sen to 91 sen while HPMT shed one sen to 43 sen in active trade.

Genting Plantations fell the most, down 16 sen to RM10 while Can-One lost 10 sen to RM3.76 and BHIC five sen to RM1.21.

Lafarge shed five sen to RM3.85, nearer to the YTL Cement offer of RM3.75 as last week’s price surge collapsed as there was no indication of a price hike in cement but the East Coat Rail Line project could provide strong support. Tasek added seven sen to RM5.60.

Public Bank shed four sen to RM22.98 but gains in Tenaga helped shore up the KLCI as the power giant rose six sen to RM12.80.

Genting added five sen to RM6.57, IHH three sen to RM5.64 and VS Industry three sen also to RM1.08.

Reuters reported oil prices steadied, caught between rising tensions in the Middle East and signs that economic growth is being hit by the US-China trade tensions.

Brent crude futures were up 4 cents at US$60.98 a barrel by 0055 GMT. They fell 1.7% in the previous session on concerns about slowing global growth.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were one cent lower at US$51.92. They dropped 1.1% on Monday.