KUALA LUMPUR: The local benchmark index retraced losses seen in the morning session to end slightly lower at 1,759.99 points.
At market close, 2.07 billion shares exchanged hands on Bursa Malaysia with a value of RM1.6bil. There were 445 decliners to 375 advancers and 430 counters unchanged.
Asian markets saw quiet trading on Tuesday but China's markets firmed up on financial and real estate firms.
At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 25.43 points or 0.78% at 3,305.89. while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 12.08 points or 0.31% to 4,053.62 points.
South Korea's Kospi, however, dropped to a three-month low as domestic media reports on sales of Apple's iPhone X sales saw selling in major IT stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The index fell 13.20 points or 0.54% to 2.427.34 points.
Eselwhere Taiwan's Taiex slipped 100.58 points or nearly 1% to 10,421.91 points and Singapore's Straits Times shaved off 4.74 points or 0.14% at 3,380.97 points.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's markets were closed on Tuesday for a notional holiday.
Back home, leading laggards on the KLCI included Telekom Malaysia, which fell 25 sen to RM6.25. Other decliners included Nestle, dipping RM2 to RM100, and Genting, slipping 10 sen to RM9.
Banking stocks also eased; Maybank slipped one sen to RM9.47, CIMB dropped one sen to RM6.48, Ambank dipped three sen to RM4.30, Hong Leong Bank shaved two sen to RM16.62, Hong Leong Financial Group fell two sen to RM17.58 and Public Bank was unchanged at RM20.70.
RHB bucked the trend, rising three sen to RM4.96.
Among gainers, PPB rose 68 sen to RM17.58, Sime Drby gained 14 sen to RM7.27, MISC advanced 16 sen to RM24.84 and IHH added two sen to RM5.83.
On the wider market, Genting Plantations slipped 20 sen to RM10.54, Globetronic dropped 15 sen to RM6.60 and Aeon Credit
dipped 14 sen to Rm13.38.
Hengyuan continued to put on gains, putting on 96 sen to RM15.40. Allianz rose 26 sen to RM13.86 and F&N put on 32 sen to RM26.70.
In commodities, oil prices retreated from 2015 highs on low year-end trading volumes.
US light crude slipped 14 cents to US$58.33 a barrel while Brent dropped 24 cents to US$65.04 a barrel.
The ringgit weakened against a basket of currencies. It dipped 0.13% against the greenback to 4.0850, 0.08% against the pound sterling at 5.4620 and 0.11% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0380.
