KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI retraced most of its losses by midday as investors jumped on the recent volatility to pick up bargain stocks.

       At 12.30pm, the key index was down 3.63 points to 1,544.02 as index heavyweight pares their losses, although most remained in negative territory.

       The FBM KLCI was down nearly 14 points at its lowest point earlier today.

       Market breadth was slightly negative with 489 decliners versus 413 gainers.

       Investor sentiment has been dampened following the World Bank's downgrade of Malaysia's economic growth forecast earlier this week to 3.3% from 4.5% previously.

       Bank stocks are also looking wobbly ahead of the government's announcement tomorrow that will reveal the details of the interest waiver on the loan moratorium.

       Maybank was down two sen to RM8.08, Public Bank fell one sen to RM4.09, CIMB dropped two sen to RM4.79 while Hong Leong Bank bucked the trend to rise four sen to RM18.82.

       Other leading decliners included Press Metal falling six sen to RM5.77, and Axiata shedding nine sen to RM3.96.

       Meanwhile, Serba Dinamik , the morning's top active counter, lost one sen to 32.5 sen after announcing a slump in its recent quarterly net profit.

       Also actively traded, Kanger was unchanged at five sen and Widad rose 0.5 sen to 39 sen.

       Asian markets firmed up after a rout in China's markets earlier this week on concerns over slowing economic growth, exacerbating fears of a global slowdown.

       Japan's Nikke rose 0.1% while China's main index reclaimed 0.4%. South Korea's Kospi was up 0.5%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.9% and Australia's ASX200 jumped 1.7%.