KUALA LUMPUR: The local stock market erased gains from the previous session with Tenaga Nasional and Public Bank leading the decline.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI closed the morning session 7.27 points lower at 1,672.15.
From a technical standpoint, the index subsided further below the 50-day simple moving average, which has been putting a lid on advances.
Trading volume was 1.35 billion shares valued at RM838.98mil There were 362 advancing stocks versus 312 declining and 335 counters unchanged.
Bursa Malaysia saw selling pressure along with other Asian markets as profit-taking set in after yesterday's rally.
Investors also took in the news of UK lawmakers' overnight vote, which resulted in the overwhelming defeat of Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal and a subsequent call for a no-confidence vote.
The outcome, however, was widely expected and regional markets limited losses. Key indices in China and Japan were each a fraction lower from yesterday's close.
Stocks seeing negative price action on the KLCI included Tenaga Nasional dropping 26 sen to RM13.58, Public Bank falling 28 sen to RM24.70 and Maxis dipping four sen to RM5.68.
Gaining momentum, Axiata rose five sen to RM4, MISC gained two sen to RM6.64 and IOI lifted three sen to RM4.63.
Top active counters were GV jumping 2.5 sen to 95.5 sen, VS Industry adding 2.5 sen to 87 sen and Fitters climbing one sen to 41.5 sen.
Oil prices managed to hold on to most of its gains from the previous session when China's pledge to offer more fiscal stimulus for the economy sent prices surging.
US crude was trading flat at US$52.11 a barrel while Brent crude slipped three cents to US$60.01.
On forex markets, the ringgit dipped 0.2% agains the US dollar at 4.1132. It also weakened 0.2% against the pound serling at 5.2883 and 0.15% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0361.
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