FBM KLCI ends flat at midday amid heightened uncertainty

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia erased earlier losses to enter the lunch break unchanged as mixed signals over the US Federal Reserve's policy outlook gave investors little confidence.

The FBM KLCI started the day's trading in a selling mood following yesterday's release of domestic inflation figures for February, which came in 0.4 percentage points higher than consensus at 1.8%.

At 12.30pm, the key index was up a marginal 0.05 points to 1,537.59 after spending the morning trading within a range of 1,532.07 to 1,540.51.

Meanwhile, the broader market remained negative with 480 decliners to 417 gainers and 461 unchanged.

The share turnover was 2.04 billion crossing hands for RM1.29bil.

Bank shares helped to shore up the index, including Maybank up four sen to RM9.66, AmBank rising five sen to RM4.17 and RHB adding two sen to RM5.64.

Hong Leong Bank, however, weighed after losing six sen to RM19.32.

Of actives, TWL was flat at three sen, Sapura Energy up one sen to five sen and Lambo unchanged at three sen.

In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei was nearly flat at 40,427 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8% to 2,758.

China's composite index slipped 0.4% to 3,014 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1% to 16,461.