KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FBM KCI was slightly negative over the morning session amid a lack of market leads ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down 1.64 points to 1,511.34 although the negativity was prevelant across the market with 509 decliners compared to 286 gainers and 458 unchanged.
A total of 1.91 billion shares crossed hands for RM981.18mil.
There was some profit-taking in bank stocks with Maybank sliding four sen to RM9.27, Public Bank shedding two sen to RM4.37 and CIMB dropping one sen to RM6.20.
PETRONAS Chemicals lost six sen to RM6.68 while Nestle fell 50 sen to RM120.80.
Meanwhile, YTL Power was seen surging 16 sen to RM4.03, while parent YTL Corp gained three sen to RM2.22.
Technology counters meanwhile, made some headway with KESM jumping 24 sen to RM6.93, Greatech adding 17 sen to RM4.62 and MPI adding 18 sen to RM26.76.
Top actives included Reneuco, falling 2.5 sen to 5.5 sen, Velesto
unchanged at 25.5 sen and ACE Market debutant AGX climbing 2.5 sen to 37.5 sen.
In Asian markets, Chinese equities extended their rally on Beijing's promises to support the ailing market.
The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9% to 2,814, while the blue-chip CSI 300 added 0.45% to 3,326.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng took a breather after the previous day's stellar performance, losing 0.1% to 16,124.
