KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets hit a speed bump at the midday break on Thursday, April 8 as investors took profit after the recent run-up as sentiment turned cautious after US stocks fell as much as 0.7% overnight.

The overnight fall on Wall Street followed comments by a top Federal Reserve official that interest rates should not stay low for much longer. While that is not seen as the majority view at the central bank, the comments gave investors an excuse to take profits, according to Reuters.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 0.92% or 12.33 points to 1,332.7, the lowest since April 1 but it is up more than 4.7% year-to-date.

Turnover was 571.86 million shares done valued at RM733.72 million. Decliners beat advancers 499 to 149 while 249 counters were unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.07% to 11,172.01 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 0.2% to 21,891.59, Shanghai's Composite Index fell 0.38% to 3,136.24 and Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.8% to 2,963.35.

Light crude oil fell 15 cents to US$85.72, US spot gold lost US$4.20 to US$1,145.15 and crude palm oil futures added RM5 to RM2,535.

CIMB, which had a strong run-up in recent months, shed 38 sen to RM14.26, dragging the FBM KLCI down by 4.3 points while Maybank shed six sen to RM7.49, pushing the index down another 1.02 points.

Panasonic Malaysia, which had a strong run in recent days, was down 60 sen to RM15.98. BAT fell 32 sen to RM45.05, Nestle 28 sen to RM35.60, PPB 26 sen to RM18.04 while KLCCP shed 20 sen to RM3.33.

MISC lost 13 sen to RM8.27 and AMMB eight sen to RM4.97 while Sime and Tenaga gave up five sen each to RM8.73 and RM8.45.

KNM fell 1.5 sen to 76 sen with 20.2 million shares done as investors did not expect the RM1.4 billion tax break to have an impact on its valuations.

PIE rose the most, up 21 sen to RM4.46 after its proposed special and final dividends while SunCity's proposed REIT saw the share price climb eight sen to RM3.78. Genting Bhd added five sen to RM6.48 but Genting Malaysia shed five sen to RM2.79.