KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI erased most of its gains over the morning session to end just slightly higher.
At 12.30pm, the key index was up 1.36 points to 1,469.8.
The market breadth was nearly even with 316 gainers compared with 344 decliners. Trading volume was 1.23 billion shares valued at RM664.35mil.
Banks retraced higher with Maybank gaining three sen to RM8.88, Public Bank adding three sne to RM4.47 and Hong Leong Bank adding two sen to RM20.72
PETRONAS Dagangan climbed 20 sen to RM21.20, MISC rose 12 sen to RM7.22 and Nestle gained 20 sen to RM130.90.
Top actives on the market were Velesto
up 1.5 sen to 12 sen, SNS rose 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen and Metronic dropped 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen.
While Bursa Malaysia was attempting to recover some losses from the previous session’s sharp sell-off, sentiment over more price hikes from the US Federal Reserve capped investor sentiment.
Meanwhile, Asian markets remained fragile despite the slight recovery made as prices tracked Wall Street’s overnight rebound.
Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.2% to 27,881, South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.1% to 2,408 and China’s composite index fell 1% to 3,204.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was up 0.5% to 18,934, and Australia’s ASX rose 0.25% to 6,845.