KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips slipped lower at the midday break on Sept 2, while some trading interest was seen in TM, Axiata and Genting. Nearly all major Asian markets were also in the red except Shanghai as investors stayed on the sidelines following the sharp fall on Wall Street overnight.

At Bursa Malaysia, the market breadth was cautious with decliners battering advancers five to one but the losses were not very significant in the absence of strong selling pressure and trading volume remained thin.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 5.24 points to 1,166.04. Turnover was 240 million shares valued at RM374 million. There were 89 gainers, 401 losers and 198 stocks unchanged.

Among major Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell the most, down 2.54% to 10,262.25; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.6% to 19,558.29, Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 1% to 2,569.41 but Shanghai's Composite Index rose 0.54% to 2,698.18.

Crude palm oil futures fell RM46 to RM2,250 per tonne, the lowest since Aug 3. Light crude oil added 26 cents to US$68.31. Spot gold lost US$2.35 to US$954 per oz.

Meanwhile, RHB Research Institute said the earnings reporting season that has just ended showed that the bulk of the corporate results under its coverage (84.4%) were coming in within or above its expectations.

It said unlike the previous few quarters where the corporates suffered from falling demand, product prices and capacity utilisation rate as well as higher production costs and write-down on inventories, some companies were reporting better margins from improving demand, better product mix and lower operating expenses on the back of the implementation of cost-cutting measures.

"Of the 96 companies that we covered, the bulk of it, i.e. 50 of the results (52.1% of the total) were within our expectations," it said.

At Bursa, KNM was the most active with 17.7 million shares done, easing 2.5 sen to 73.5 sen. Multi Sports lost 2.5 sen to 52.5 sen. Genting fell 10 sen to RM6.54, Axiata lost four sen to RM3.09 but TM added two sen to RM3.13.

Dutch Lady was the top loser, down 20 sen to RM11.30 with only 500 shares done. MAS fell 11 sen to RM2.96 while down 10 sen each were PPB, Aeon, Sungei Bagan and Genting to RM15.20, RM4.60, RM2.40 and RM6.54.

Panasonic Malaysia rose the most, adding 20 sen to RM12.50 but with only 5,100 units done. Power-gaming company Tanjong added 14 sen to RM15.58, Shell 10 sen to RM10.70 while TSR Cap rose six sen to RM1.30  and Pos also six sen higher to RM2.18.