KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's FBM KLCI ended the morning session on Thursday in the red as profit taking picked up pace on key stocks like Genting, Tenaga and selected bank stocks.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.39 points or 0.08% to 1,650.45. Turnover was 477.45 million shares valued at RM552.59mil. There were 277 gainers, 284 losers and 252 stocks unchanged.

Key regional markets were mixed.

The Bank of Japan rejected a call for an immediate start to open-ended assets purchases in governor Masaaki Shirakawa's final meeting before a new leadership takes over at the central babnk, Bloomberg reported.

Among the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.45% to 11,985.84; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.1% to 0.1% to 22,800.18; Shanghai's Composite Index a marginal 0.01% higher at 2,347.31 while Taiwan's Taiex inched up 0.47% to 9,475.64.

However, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,004.57 and Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.14% to 1,9226.04.

The ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 3.1079 from 3.1048 the previous day.

Genting Bhd fell 13 sen to RM9.89, dragging the KLCI down 1.11 points while Tenaga Nasional shed four sen to RM6.96 and erased 0.51 of a point.

Crude palm oil for third-month futures fell RM11 to RM2,388. BLD Plantations fell 34 sen to RM8.45, SOP six sen to RM5.49, KL Kepong also six sen to RM20.64 while IOI and FGV were down three sen each to RM4.97 and RM4.58.

Among the banks, Public Bank shed four sen to RM16.14 but Maybank and CIMB added two sen each to RM9.13 and RM7.22.

Among the consumer stocks, BAT rose 30 sen to RM61.30, GAB and Carlsberg 10 sen each to RM16.90 and RM13.50.

UMW gained 20 sen to RM13.96 as investors viewed the stock had more upside on its oil and gas operations.

HL Cap added 17 sen to RM3.57 as investors ignored the looming trading suspension on April 15 due to the lack of public shareholding spread. They were hoping for a revision in the takeover price of RM1.71.

US light crude oil fell 15 cents to US$90.28 and Brent 25 cents lower at US$110.81. Spot gold shed 19 cents to US$1,583.78.

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