KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): The FBM KLCI pared some of its gains at the midday break today in line with the wary regional markets.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark index was up 7.91 points to 1,645.50. The index had earlier risen to its intra morning high of 1,648.43.

The top gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaya) Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Scientex Bhd, Lay Hong Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, YSP Southeast Asia Bhd and PPB Group Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included Tiger Synergy Bhd, Instacom Group Bhd, Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd, PUC Founder Bhd, KNM Group Bdh and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

The decliners included Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd, Enra Group Bhd, BLD Plantation Bhd, Latitude Tree Holdings Bhd, Time Dotcom Bhd. P.I.E. Industrial Bhd and Atlan Bhd.

Asian stocks held near four-year lows and crude oil prices approached a 20 percent drop in less than two weeks as investors worried over the extent of China's economic slowdown and its impact on emerging markets, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged 0.4 percent higher but still stood near a four-year low touched on Monday, and was still down more than 8 percent since the start of 2016. It fell 12 percent last year, it said.

AffinHwang Capital Research said bearish sentiments from China’s sell-offs, Yuan devaluation and tension in the middle east may drag the local market lower.

“Weak Ringgit, sliding oil price and continuous strengths of US dollar pose negative catalysts for local market;

“The FBM KLCI continues to consolidate mainly due to external factors,” it said.