KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its fall over the morning session as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement and corporate earnings announcements later this week.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was down 11.28 points to 1,488.11, in line with softer regional markets.
There were 552 decliners compared with 256 gainers. Trading volume was 2.51 billion shares valued at RM1.13bil.
Oil and gas counters were down after Brent crude prices slipped below the US$85 a barrel mark overnight.
The Bursa Malaysia Energy Index shed 0.6% to 888.111 with declined led by Dialog down four sen to RM2.60, Petron Malaysia
falling two sen to RM4.57 and Dayang losing two sen to RM1.47
PETRONAS Chemicals fell six sen to RM8.39, PETRONAS Gas shed 64 sen to RM16.96 and PETRONAS Dagangan dropped 50 sen to RM22.38.
Among financial counters, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.74, Public Bank slipped one sen ot RM4.25, CIMB dropped three sen to RM5.75 and Hong Leong Bank fell 46 sne to RM20.74.
Most active counters on the market were ACE Market debutant Vestland up six sen to 39 sen, Borneo Oil unchanged at two sen and G3 gaining 0.5 sne to 3.5 sen.
In key Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.25% to 27,376, South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.7% to 2,433 and China's composite index slid 0.4% to 3,257.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.3% to 21,789 while Australia's ASX200 lost 0.15% to 7,470.
