KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 7.56 points lower at lunch break at 1,770.71 on bargain hunting activity earlier today.
A dealer said the market was down and quite volatile after the steep fall yesterday.
"Investors are being cautious and are waiting on the sidelines, while waiting for some indication that the local bourse will stabilise," he told Bernama.
Most Asian stocks were traded mixed, with Japan's Nikkei 225 rising 14.72 points to 17,604.82 while India's S&P Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index was 66.57 points lower at 28,493.05 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 81.79 points to 23,449.24.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index trimmed 37.33 points to 12,158.07 and the FBMT100 Index decreased 34.25 points to 11,874.57, but the FBM 70 rose 25.95 points to 13,127.92 while the FBM Ace was up 16.44 points to 5979.85.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index contracted 86.26 points to 15,827.45, the Industrial Index was down 17.54 points to 3,228.84 and the Plantation Index lost 61.42 points to 8,113.98.
Turnover amounted to 1.13 billion shares worth RM926.99 million.
Losers led gainers 480 to 251, while 293 counters were unchanged, 674 untraded and nine others suspended.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.14, TNB contracted eight sen to RM18.26 and Public Bank was down 12 sen to RM18.26.
Active counters included KNM which was flat at 47 sen, while Nexgram went up half-a-sen to 7.5 sen and Bumi Armada rose one sen to RM1.02.-- Bernama