KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI pared losses but remained slightly under water at the lunch break despite a regional rally on the back of improved sentiment in China.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was down 1.08 points to 1,581.68 extending a fall for a fourth straight session as investors awaited the release of corporate results.
The broader market was negative with 449 decliners compared to 375 gainers after turnover of 1.9 billion shares valued at RM985.7mil.
Maybank was down 10 sen to RM10.46 as investors turned cautious on the bank following an announcement that its group chief financial officer had been terminated after an intenal inquiry.
Other banks, however, fared better with CIMB rising six sen to RM8.36, Public Bank gaining one sen to RM4.48 and RHB adding one sen to RM6.58.
Notable gainers also included MPI rising 64 sen to RM21.30, LPI jumping 18 sen to RM14.04 and HteiTech Padu climbing 11 sen to RM2.73.
Of actives, Techstore was up three sen to 23 sen on its debut on the ACE Market. Ingenieur was up 0.5 sen to six sne and Harvest Miracle dipped one sen to 14 sen.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were mostly positive after a rare meeting between China's business leaders and President Xi Jinping lifted sentiment over future government support.
China's composite index rose 0.29% to 3,365 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.05% to 23,080.
In Japan, the Nikkei gained 0.66% to 39,431 while Singapore's Straits Times added 0.24% to 3,914.
Australia's ASX200 was down 0.55% to 8,490, a mild decline after the central bank pared interest rates by 25 basis points, in line with market expectations.
