KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips fell in the morning session as a sideways trading pattern over the last two weeks continued amid a dearth of buying leads.
The benchmark FBM KLCI settled 7.97 points lower at 1,672.35 at the midday break, a couple of points off the intra-morning low of 1,670.91.
On the scoreboard, the broader market registered 500 gainers, 487 decliners and 500 counters unchanged. The trading volume was 1.56 billion shares valued at RM1.22bil.
Plantations, healthcare and financial services were among the leading laggards, as investors cashed in on gains made in the previous session.
CIMB Bank weighed on the heavyweight index after losing 25 sen to RM7.99.
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shed 11 sen to RM7.02, Telekom Malaysia dropped 16 sen to MR7.70 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong slid 14 sen to RM19.84.
CelcomDigi, however, jumped 14 sen to RM3.41.
Meanwhile, Insights Analytics continued its rally, rising 21 sen to RM1.67. Other actively traded shares included MMAG up 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen and Tanco gaining one sen to RM1.19.
In regional markets, the trading sentiment remained positive with the Shanghai Composite index (SCI) hitting its highest level in nearly a decade, ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in February.
The SCI gained 1.14% to 4,069, while the blue-chip CSI300 rose 1.15% to 4,772. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.78% to 26,815.
In Japan, the Nikkei rose 1.,03% to 52,369.
