KUALA LUMPUR: The investor sentiment on Bursa Malaysia soured following the retreat on Wall Street stocks overnight, while stimulus measures announced by Beijing failed to lift confidence over the country's economic recovery.

       At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 16.21 points to 1,523.06, underpinned by declines in 678 counters.

       The trading volume was 2.1 billion shares valued at RM1.4bil.

       China's composite index managed to pull higher 0.3% at 3,047 and the blue-chip CSI300 rose 0.5% to 3,558 after a weak start to the day as substantial measures to support the economy failed to materialise at the annual National People's Congress.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, tumbled 2% to 16,272 amid profit-taking in technology counters.

       On Malaysia's blue-chip index, 27 out of 30 constituent counters dropped into the red amid broad-based profit-taking.

       Among the biggest laggards, Tenaga Nasional was down 16 sen to RM11.04, Press Metal shed 13 sen to RM4.53 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 34 sen to RM21.98.

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       In banks, Hong Leong Bank shaved 18 sen to RM19.40, CIMB lost eight sen to RM6.37, Maybank dipped four sen to RM9.56, Ambank gave up five sen to RM4.19 and RHB slipped three sen to RM5.59.

       The top actives of the day were Harvest Miracle flat at 14 sen, Ekovest unchanged at 45 sen and IW City up 2.5 sen to 76 sen.