KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI failed to hold to on gains in the early morning session as investors lost their nerve over a weak global growth forecast.
At 12.30pm, the index was down 1.91 points to 1,690.31. Trading volume was 1.92 billion shares valued at RM867.51mil. There were 435 decliners versus 280 gainers and 337 counters unchanged.
The Malaysian exchange was playing catch up to other Asian markets as it returned from a long weekend on Tuesday.
Regional equities had slipped in Monday trade following the release of China's 2018 economic data that showed the slowest pace of growth since 1990.
This was compounded by the International Monetary Fund lowering its growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 3.5% and warning that the world economy was slowing unless trade disputes were resolved.
Back home, the RBM KLCI was weighed down by Petronas Chemicals shedding 20 sen to RM8.40, Public Bank dropping 12 sen to RM24.68 and Maybank falling five sen to RM9.50.
Most active counters on Bursa Malaysia were Bumi Armada
rising two sen to 24 sen, Sapura Energy losing 0.5 sen to 28 sen to Sumatec rising 0.5 sen to one sen.
Two counters hit limit up in morning trade - Heitech Padu rose 30 sen to RM1.16 before retracing to 99 sen while Mesiniaga entered the midday break at its upper daily limit, up 34 sen 29.3% to RM1.50.
Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday as the negative outlook on the economy raised concerns over demand for the commodity. US crude oil fell 37 cents to US$53.43 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 50 cents to US$62.24.
On the forex market, the ringgit was weaker against a basket of major currencies. It slipped 0.45% against the US dollart at 4.1310, 0.7% against the pound sterling at 5.3200 and 0.4% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0369.
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