KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse continued to see investors cashing in on the gains made during the window-dressing rally last week.
Elsewhere, stock markets moved higher as the tax reform bill in the US looked likely to be passed later this week. Chinese markets, however, were easier, as the markets reacted to its interest rate hike last week.
At midday break, the FBM KLCI was 3.43 points lower at 1,749.64 points. Turnover was 1.21 billion shares with a value of RM825.9mil. There were 322 decliners to 249 advancers and 503 counters unchanged.
Genting Malaysia was the leading laggard on the index, shaving off 13 sen to RM5.52. This was followed by banking heavyweight Maybank, which lost five sen to RM9.49.
Public Bank, which leapt ahead last Thursday, saw a six sen decline to RM20.70.
Ambank also fell, losing 11 sen to RM4.35, while RHB dropped four sen to RM5.08 and CIMB slipped two sen to RM6.29
The Hong Leong counters were the winners among the financial stocks, with Hong Leong Bank putting on 32 sen to RM16.98 and Hong Leong Financial Group gaining 34 sen to RM17.34.
Petronas Dagangan was another notable gainer, rising 18 sen to RM24.48.
Other decliners on the KLCI included Genting, falling six sen to RM8.93, and Petronas Gas, slipping eight sen to RM16.16.
Tenaga Nasional dropped two sen to RM15.42 while Telekom Malaysia fell three sen to RM6.07.
Press Metal
Aluminium made its debut on the KLCI today, gaining two sen to RM5. Another newcomer to the index, Nestle, dropped 20 sen to RM99.80.
On the wider market Far East gained 44 sen to RM9.10 while Hengyuan continued to see good gains, putting on 42 sen to RM13.24. TOp GLove also rose, adding 12 sen to RM7.04.
Meanwhile, Selangor Properties dropped 20 sen to RM5.30, Time dotCom slipped 15 sen to RM9.20 and Apollo Food gave up 17 sen to RM4.51
In commodities, oil prices edged higher, boosted still by the North Sea pipeline shut down and signs that US crude output may be slowing, Reuters reported.
US light crude rose 10 cents to US$57.40 a barrel while Brent crude gained 16 cents to US$63.39 a barrel.
The local currency weakened against the US dollar as the greenback firmed on news that the US tax reform was closer to ratification.
The ringgit was 0.18% lower to the US dollar at 4.0870, and 0.19% weaker against the SIngapore dollar at 3.0292. It strengthened 0.75% against the pound sterling at 5.4493.
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