KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI was slightly lower at midday as it climbed out of morning lows even as inflation pressures and rate hike fears continued to mount.
At 12.30pm, the key inde was down 0.53 point to 1,419.53.
There were 369 decliners compared with 335 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.22 billion shares valued at RM490.56mil.
Leading the index lower was Press Metal
falling nine sen to RM4.09 and Tenaga Nasional sliding 15 sen to RM7.93.
Financial services stocks also slipped with Maybank down two sen to RM8.60, Public Bank dropping one sen to RM4.39, Hong Leong Bank falling four sen to RM20.26 and CIMB losing five sen to RM5.05.
Tech counters however managed to stay afloat given the Nasdaq's fractionally higher performance overnight.
Of actives, Sapura Energy was flat at four sen, Jetson added one sen to 23 sen and Reach Energy slipped 0.5 sen to three sen.
Major Asian markets retraced earlier gains as recession fears watered down fears over a full percentage point rate hike at the US Federal Reserve's next monetary committee meeting.
Japan's Nikkei was up 0.6%, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.4% while China's composite index slipped 0.25% after its second quarter GDP came in at a mere 0.4% growth.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.2% while Australia's ASX200 dropped 0.7%
