KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian's benchmark FBM KLCI stands poised to end the week at a fresh eight-month low as the selling pressure in blue chips continued unabated.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down 4.95 points to 1,378.06. The market breadth was slightly positive with 386 gainers compared to 357 decliners.
Trading volume was 2.09 billion shares valued at RM924.05mil.
The financial services sector was mostly in the red with Maybank dropping five sen to RM8.55, Public Bank falling four sen to RM3.79, Hong Leong losing 36 sen to RM18.92 and CIMB shaving six sen to RM4.80.
Other leading laggards included Maxis shaving 12 sen to RM4.04, IHH falling nine sen ot RM5.65 and Nestle sliding RM4.20 to RM130.20.
Top actively traded counters included KNM up 1.5 sen to eight sen, MYEG gained 2.5 sen to 86.5 sen, Borneo Oil
down 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen.
The weak performance came at odds with regional sentiment, which had risen following the passing of the US debt ceiling bill at the House of Representatives overnight, which would avert a catastrophic government default.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.95% to 31,443, South Korea's Kospi gained 1% to 2,595 and China's composite index added 0.8% to 3,229.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng leapt 3.7% to 18,888 as technology counters rallied ahead of US jobs data later today.
