KUALA LUMPUR: There was a dip in Malaysia's blue-chip index, while weak sentiment stalked the broader market as investors remained selective in their portfolios.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.7 points to 1,536.94 as profit-taking pulled the index lower following the previous day's rally.
The underlying market weakness was more evident among the lower liners with 552 issues falling to negative territory and only 272 positive. The construction sector outperformed with a marginal 0.32% price increase while the other 12 sectors were in the red.
Overall market volume was 1.53 billion shares changing hands for RM999.52mil.
Beverage maker F&N joined brewers in the red, falling 22 sen to RM28.78 amid weak consumer sentiment. Heineken Malaysia
dropped 58 sen to RM23.42 and Carlsberg shed 10 sen to RM17.76.
Meanwhile, Inari Amertron - in the spotlight recently for its plan to acquire Netherland's loss-making Lumileds International for US$239mil - dropped 10 sen to RM1.87.
Leading actives included NexG, flat at 53.5 sen, and Top Glove, down 1.5 sen to 62 sen.
In Asian markets, investors shrugged off some early caution following Wall Street's pullback amid fears over weaker-than-exected US economic data.
Japan's Nikkei was up 0.94% to 26,736 and China's composite index gained 0.27% to 3,627.
South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.25% to 3,190.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.18% to 24,947.
