KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended the morning session on a flat note after after retracing its gains from earlier in the day.

       With US markets closed overnight for a Labour Day holiday, there was a lack of fresh leads to guide trading direction.

       However, major Asian markets remained buoyed by confidence that the US Federal Reserve is likely to delay the star of tapering of its asset purchases following last week's soft US jobs data.

       At 12.30pm, the key Malaysian index was up 0.24 point to 1,581.83, after dipping several times into negative territory.

       Maybank was a leading decliner, sliding four sen to RM8.29 while CIMB dropped six sen to RM4.90 and glove maker Top GLove fell four sen to RM3.68.

       Maxis was down three sen to RM4.60 and Tenaga Nasional slid four sen to RM10.30.

       Press Metal bucked the trend, jumping 26 sen to RM5.77 to help erase most of the losses on the index.

       On the broader market, Genetec was seen gaining 48 sen to RM31.98, PMB Tech rose 32 sen to RM6.72 and Widetec climbed 27 sen to RM4.31.

       To actives were KNM up two sen to 31 sen, PHB unchanged at 1.5 sen and TFP flat at 23 sen.

       In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.9% although South Korea's Kospi fell 0.7% on a tech sell-off

       China's main index was up 0.8% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.6%.

       Australia's ASX200 dipped 0.25%.