KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips succumbed to selling pressure after a promising start on Thursday with profit-taking setting in after the previous day's rally.
At 12.3pm, the benchmark index had slipped 6.23 points to 1,592.2, below the 1,600 psychological level.
However, the index remains sitting on the 50-day simple moving average, suggesting the uptrend remains intact.
The selling in the broader market continued with 517 stocks registering losses compared to 325 recording gains.
Turnover was 1.52 billion shares changing hands for RM1.03bil.
Asian markets were mixed on Thursday amid fears of fresh trade tariffs and a higher-than-expected US inflation report that could shelve any plans by the Federal Reserve to reduce the lending rate.
China's composite index was down 0.12% to 3,342 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.52% to 22,191.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.44% to 39,525 and Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 3,872.
On Bursa Malaysia, Nestle slid 96 sen to RM91 while Carlsberg dropped 34 sen to RM19.92 and MPI lost 54 sen to RM21.
Bank were also on the backfoot with CIMB falling 11 sen to RM8.29, RHB shedding three sen to RM6.55 and Maybank losing four sen to RM10.56.
