KUALA LUMPUR: The local stock exchange started off strong in the early morning session but retraced its gains by midday.
Global equities aimed higher on Friday on news that US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping spoke through the phone in an effort to thaw worsening relations.
Wall Street led the global push overnight despite Apple inc's weak forecast on holiday sales.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was a mere 0.01 points higher at 1,706.93.Trading volume was 1.61 billion shares valued at RM860.68mil. Advancers outpaced decliners 510 to 228 with 299 counters unchanged.
Leading advancers were Genting up eight sen to RM7.48, Maxis adding three sen to RM5.24 and Digi rising two sen to RM4.24.
Slipping back, TNB lost four sen to RM14.52, Axiata dropped four sen to RM3.40 and MIC slid three sen to RM6.58.
Seeing active morning trade, Prestarigns rose a further 12.5 sen to 72 sen, Seacera jumped four sen to 33 sen and Datasonic grew three sen to 43 sen.
Top gainers were KESM rising RM1.16 to RM12.20, Heineken lifting 44 sen to RM18.70 and Amway climbing 27 sen to RM6.95.
Record outputs from the world's top three crude suppliers offset supply concerns over the start of US sanctions against Iran next week.
WTI crude slid 24 cents to US$63.45 a barrel while Brent crude fell 23 cents US$72.66 a barrel.
The ringgit rose 0.2% against the greenback to 4.1690 on optmism over the tabling of Budget 2019 later today. It slid 0.4% against the pound sterling to 5.4201 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar to 3.0325.
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