KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's equities market remained on the backfoot at midday, in line with a bearish mood in regional markets, although losses were limited by stronger-than-expected growth in China's economy.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 4.24 points to 1,430.66 while the broader market performance was negative with 449 decliners to 231 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.77 billion shares valued at RM825.84mil.
Asian markets were mostly negative on Tuesday although sentiment was helped by the release of China's gross domestic product, which showed 4.5% growth year-on-year, outpacing the projections of economists.
Japan's Nikkei was up 0.6% to 28,692, South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.3% to 2,567 while China's composite index was flat at 3,384.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.75% to 20,624 as investors continued to react to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
In Australia, the ASX200 fell 0.5% to 7,345.
Among Bursa's blue chips, Tenaga Nasional led losses with a 14 sen decline to RM9.04.
IHH Healthcare shed seven sen to RM5.81 and PETRONAS Chemicals slid six sen to RM7.34.
Banks included Maybank down three sen to RM8.67, CIMB dropping one sen to RM5.25 and Hong Leong Bank falling 15 sen to RM20.28.
Top actives on the market included Dataprep up two sen to 25 sen, CFM rising two sen to 25 sen and Jade Marvel unchanged at 30 sen.
