KUALA LUMPUR: The profit-taking activity on Bursa Malaysia intensified over the early session as investors cashed in on recent gains after buying up the market for five straight days.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI had fallen 10.3 points to 1,488.53 while the number of decliners on the broader market dwarfed gainers 611 to 280.
Trading volume on the market, however, remained healthy with 3.02 billion shares done for RM1.37bil.
Bank shares were among the biggest losers with CIMB falling nine sen to RM5.96, Maybank dropping nine sen to RM9.01, Public Bank sliding seven sen to RM4.32 and RHB shedding two sen to RM5.53.
PETRONAS Chemicals lost eight sen to RM7.02 while Tenaga Nasional fell six sen to RM10.50.
Of actives, Hong Seng was flat at 2.5 sen, TWL gained 0.5 sen to five sen and Fintec was down 0.5 sen to one sen.
Meanwhile, regional markets were subdued ahead of the release of US inflation data on Thursday, which would offer clues as to the Federal Reserve's next policy move.
Japan's Nikkei, however, soared 2.1% to an all-time high of 34,475 after exporters rallied on the back of a softening yen.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.7% to 2,543 while China's composite index shed 0.2% to 2,887 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4% to 16,122.
