KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 28): The FBM KLCI reversed its earlier losses and clawed marginally higher at the midday break, lifted by select index-linked blue chips.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI gained 0.2 points to 1,685.17. The index had earlier slipped to its intra-morning low of 1,678.48.

Gainers led losers by 339 to 329 while 313 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 848.93 million shares valued at RM897.15 million.

The gainers included Nestle (M) Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, United Plantations Bhd, IHH Healthcare Bhd, Supermax Corp Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, QL Resources Bhd, Public Bank Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd.

The actives included Genting Malaysia Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Sanichi Technology Bhd, Tatt Giap Group Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd, Permaju Industries Bhd, My EG Services Bhd and Sapura Energy Bhd.

The losers included Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Chin Teck Plantations Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd and Enra Group Bhd.

Asian shares dithered on Wednesday and the US dollar jumped to a near 1½-year top as risk assets rowed back amid conflicting signals on prospects for de-escalating the Sino-US trade dispute, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan see-sawed between positive and negative territory and last was flat. Australian and South Korean stocks were both down 0.2%, it said.

Affin Hwang Capital Research said the FBM KLCI failed to sustain gains yesterday, dropping 17.02 points, closing at 1,684.97.

The research house said the poor performance may be contributed by heavy-selling in Genting due to unfavourable news (termination of a memorandum of agreement by FOX) as well as Morgan Stanley cutting Malaysia's outlook to "underweight".

"Observe if the short-term support level around 1,675 will hold or [break] below to determine further direction moving forward.

"Anticipate local stocks to move in tandem with the global markets weakness," it said.