KUALA LUMPUR: The decline on Bursa Malaysia continued over the morning session as investor optimism over recent US economic data has been priced in and the market continued a consolidation phase.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 4.88 points to 1,455.79.
There were 431 decliners compared to 33 gainers while trading volume was 1.66 billion shares valued at RM822.93mil.
Among the lead decliners were MISC falling 15 sen to RM7.24 and Press Metal
shedding seven sen to RMRM4.81.
Bank counters Public Bank dropped three sen to RM4.20 while CIMB lost five sen to RM5.75.
Meanwhile, F&N shed 22 sen to RM26.88, Westports dropped seven sen to RM3.44 and KESM lost 10 sen to RM7.
Top Glove was actively bought, rising three sen to 81.5 sen with over 53 million shares exchanging hands.
The top active of the morning was Hong Seng up 0.5 sen to four sen and Leform rising 0.5 sen to 29 sen.
In regional markets, China's composite index rose 0.5% to 3,070 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.5% to 17,717.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.5% to 33,404 while South Korea's Kospi gained 1% to 2,493.
