KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index retreated in morning trade as profit-taking continued ahead of the Hari Raya holiday weekend.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.01 points to 1,430.06, while the broader market was negative with 393 decliners to 262 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.27 billion shares valued at RM726.41mil.
Blue chips that led the decline included Public Bank down five sne to RM3.92, CelcomDigi falling six sne to RM4.37 and IHH Healthcare falling nine sen to RM5.76.
There was also selling in consumer counters including Nestle down 50 sen to RM134.50, Carlsberg dropping 28 sen to RM21.62 and F&N sliding 28 sen to RM27.
Of actives, Revenue rose 0.5 sen to 40.5 sen, MYEG dropped 1.5 sne to 80.5 sen and Salute skidded 22 sen to 94 sen.
Meanwhil, a cautious mood prevailed over Asian markets as investors looked ahead to global central bank meetings scheduled over the next few weeks.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.3% to 28,861, South Korea's Kopsi fell 0.3% to 2,568 and China's composite index fell 0.7% to 3,346.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.2% to 20,407 while Australia's ASX200 added 0.1% to 7,375.
