KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips slipped at midday on Thursday, dragged down by losses in Hong Leong Bank (HL Bank) and AmBank but the mild selling was offset by gains in CIMB. MRCB attracted heavy trading interest following an upbeat by CIMB Equities Research.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.79 points or 0.1% to 1,766.37. Turnover was 781.40 million shares valued at RM635.98mil. There were 250 gainers, 349 losers and 478 stocks unchanged.
Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting showed a lack of consensus on the future pace of US interest rate increases, while oil prices inched higher following a steep decline a day earlier, Reuteres reported.
European markets were set for a steady open, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 to be unchanged, Germany's DAX to open up 0.2% and France's CAC 40 to start the day 0.1% higher.