KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI slipped in morning trade, in line with other regional markets as South Korea's financial markets remained unsettled from the political crisis and investing sentiment turned cautious ahead of global central bank meetings scheduled to take place this week.
At the midday break, the benchmark index was down 4.46 points to 1,608.79, keeping the price trend well within a consolidation channel.
The broader market was also largely negative with 608 decliners compared to 302 gainers. The share turnover was 1.73 billion changing hands for RM1.14bil.
Among the blue chips, there was profit-taking in Kuala Lumpur Kepong, down 38 sen ot RM21.42, PPB shedding 16 sen to RM12.74 and PETRONAS Dagangan dropping 32 sne to RM20.08.
YTL Power was down 11 sen to RM3.62 while YTL Corp fell nine sen to RM2.16.
Of active stocks, Zentech was flat at one sen, MYEG up 2.5 sen to 94.5 sen and Dataprep up 0.5 sen to 15.5 sen.
In Asia, the trading sentiment was dampened by the turmoil in South Korea's political scene despite attempts by policymakers to reintill confidence in the stock market.
South Korea's Kospi dove 2.24% to 2,373, leading key Asian markets southwards.
China's composite index was down 0.4% to 3,390, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.57^% to 19,753 and Singapore's Straits Times dipped 0.11% to 3,791.
Japan's Nikkei, meanwhile, gained 0.16% to 39,145.
