KUALA LUMPUR: The rebound on Malaysia's stock market failed to materialise as investors remained cautious over global inflation and rising interest rates.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 2.41 points to 1,421.76.
There were 489 decliners compared with 258 gainers.
Trading volume was muted with 1.71 billion shares exchanging hands valued at RM828.48mil.
On the blue-chip index, PETRONAS Chemicals shed 10 sne to RM7.09 while IHH Healthcare dropped seven sen to RM5.78 and Tenaga Nasional slid nine sen to RM9.90.
Maybank was down two sen to RM8.77, CIMB fell two sen to RM5.41, Hong Leong Bank shaved four sen to RM19.46 and RHB dropped two sen to RM5.41.
On the broader market, Boustead Plantation plunged 24 sen to RM1.22 on market.
Top actives were EMCC flat at 42.5 sen, Fintec unchanged at one sen and KNM up one sne to 13.5 sen.
Trading in Asia was subdued owing to mainland China's Golden Week holiday as well as a market holiday in Hong Kong.
South Korea's exchange was also closed till Wednesday for national holidays.
Japan's Nikkei meanwhile rose 0.5% to 32,030 as the yen slid to its lowest point in over a year.
