KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI was slightly lower in Wednesday's morning session as investors awaited the start of the US-China trade talks that take place later today and tomorrow.
As investors stay on the sidelines, the index remains in consolidation mode in the hope for a breakthrough that would serve as a buying catalyst.
At 12.30pm, the local benchmark index was down 1.1 points to 1,689.31. Turnover was 955.93 million shares valued at RM685.02mil. There were 314 decliners versus 280 gainers and 339 counters unchanged.
In wider Asia, equity markets were mostly slightly higher, with the exception of Japan, which declined 0.3%.
Among China markets, Shanghai's Composite Index was up 0.1%, the blue chip CSI 300 rose 0.2% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.3%.
On the KLCI, Maybank led the decline with a 10 sen drop to RM9.59. THis was followed by Digi, down six sen to RM4.55 and Tenaga Nasional, dropping six sen to RM13.44.
Axiata gained eight sen to RM4.04, MISC rose 15 sen to RM6.80 and Genting climbed four sen to RM6.93.
Top active counters in the morning session were Sapura Energy
, up 0.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Sinmah down 1.5 sen to 18 sen and Bumi Armada up 0.5 sen to 21.5 sen.
Oil prices meanwhile gained on fears of supply disruptions following US sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry. US crude rose 23 cents to US$53.54 a barrel while Brent crude gained 35 cents to US$61.67 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit rose 0.1% against the US dollar at 4.1087, 0.6% against the pound sterling at 5.3791 and was little changed against the Singapore dollar at 3.0412.
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