KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI lost its early lead to end slightly lower at midday as investors awaited new leads from corporate earnings results.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down one point to 1,517.16.
The market breadth was negative with 476 decliners compared to 264 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.38 billion shares valued at RM955.39mil.
Stocks leading the decline on the blue-chip index were Tenaga Nasional down seven sen to RM8.80, Maxis sliding five sen to RM3.90 and Sime Darby Plantation
dropping seven sen to RM4.61.
Hartalega, which had succumbed to strong selling pressure in recent days, bounced two sen higher to RM1.76 after analysts said the glove maker’s shares were deeply oversold.
Taking the market spotlight however was ACE Market debutant Agmo, which surged 49 sen to 75 sen on 127.51 million shares traded, the highest in the morning session.
Recently listed Cnergenz was the second most popular stock, rising 19 sen to 91.5 sen on 94.31 million shares following a positive earnings result announced yesterday.
In Asia, equities fell following Wall Street’s negative performance amid fears the Federal Reserve could maintain its aggressive interest rate hikes despite evidence of a slowing economy.
Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.9% to 28,972, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.5% to 2,504 and China’s composite index fell 0.5% to 3,276.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.6% o 19,797 and Australia’s ASX200 was down 0.3% to 7,106.