KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended the morning session slightly higher as traders looked ahead to a slew of corporate earnings that are scheduled for release in the coming weeks.
At 12.30pm, benchmark index was up 1.23 points to 1,615.10.
There was uneven interest in the blue chip market with selective buying. RHB rose 10 sen to RM7.48, YTL Power gained five sen to RM5.32 and SD Guthrie jumped 13 sen to RM5.88. Meanwhile, Nestle dove RM2.68 to RM95.30 after four days of consecutive gains as investors took to profit-taking.
Investor caution was apparent in the broader market as the number of declining issues outpaced gainers 526 to 362. Trading volume was 1.78 billion shares changing hands from RM1.05bil.
By sector, financial services dropped 0.2%, consumer services shed 0.14% and technology shares subsided 0.46%.
Energy stocks remained in focus, rising 0.11%, while plantations gained 0.47%.
Of the leading actives on the market, Zetrix held top position, unchanged at 8.5 sen. Nexgram
was also flat at 5.5 sen and Dataprep slid 0.5 sen to four sen.
After an euphoric rally in the previous session, South Korea's Kospi retreated 1.29% to 5,935 on profit-taking.
Japan's Nikkei continued to push 0.8% higher to 64,460 on the back of the earnings result of Advantest, a leading manufacturer of testing equipment for the semiconductor industry.
China's Shanghai Composite index fell 0.28% to 3,671 while the CSI300 slid 0.74% to 4,053. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.17% to 23,133.
