KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia slipped in the mid-morning session to enter midday in negative territory.
Asian markets were mostly lower as an increase in Italy's budget threatens to worsen the nation's debt troubles and negatively impact the European Union.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 2.04 points lower at 1,796.11. Trading volume was 1.35 billion shares valued at RM908.99mil. There were 266 advancers versus 417 decliners and 386 counters unchanged.
Top decliners included Genting sliding nine sen to RM7.85, Maxis losing four sen to RM5.80 and IHH shedding three sen to to RM5.21.
Gaining ground, Tenaga rose four sen to RM15.58, Petronas Chemicals put on two sen to RM9.50 and COMB rose one sen to RM6.05.
On the wider stock exchange, Key Asic fell 3.5 sen to 17 sen on its proposal to undertake a share capital reduction.
Other top active counters included VS Industry adding five sen to RM1.5 and Fitter rising 0.5 sen to 41 sen.
Oil supply worries resulting from US sanctions on Iran continued to prop up the commodity's prices to four-year highs. WTI crude lost two cents to US$75.21 and Brent crude edge one cent higher to US$84.81.
In currencies, the ringgit was slightly higher against the greenback at 4.1388. It slid 0.1% against the pound sterling at 5.3777 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0127.
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