KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI entered the lunch break in the red after a volatile early session.
At 12.30pm, the market was down 7.77 points to 1,667.47 after trading within a 20-point range.
The day started out with the FBM KLCI in negative territory as investors took profit on the previous day's profits, although this was quickly overturned with buying interest that brought the index to an intraday high of 1,684.68.
The jubilant mood was doused just as quickly as it arrived with late-morning traders once again cashing out of rapid rise in blue-chip prices.
Meanwhile, the small caps and lower liners remained underwater with the number of declining stocks on the market dwarfing the gainers 759 to 295.
Of the sectors on the broader market, only three stayed positive, comprising plantations, REITs and utilities.
The trading volume was 2.18 billion shares changing hands for RM1.86bil.
Heavy profit-taking was seen in CIMB, down 25 sen to RM8.13, MISC shedding 19 sen to RM8.40 and PETRONAS Chemicals dropping 20 sne ot RM5.89.
Conversely, Maybank picked up two sen to RM10.88 to build on the previous day's strong rally, while Sunway climbed seven sen to RM3.98.
Actives included Key Alliance unchanged at 0.5 sen, Cape EMS down 0.5 sen to 34.5 sen and Luster down 0.5 sen to seven sen.
Regionally, key markets were mostly lower following Wall Street's soft overnight performance and Nvidia's share slide after its quarterly outperformance failed to satisfy bullish investors had taken its valuation to stratospheric levels.
In China, the composite index was down 0.45% to 2,824, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.65% to 17,576.
Japan's Nikkei shed 0.07% to 38,345 while Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.34% to 3,402.
