KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI hovered in the red at midday ahead of bank earnings results even as major Asian markets climbed on expectation that US inflation will taper moving forward.

       At 12.30pm, the key index was down 1.76 points to 1,545 amid an overall negative market that saw 484 decliners compared with 318 gainers.

       This is in contract to wider Asian markets, which tracked Wall Street's Friday performance higher, and spurred on by China's announcement that lockdown conditions for businesses will ease.

       Japan's Nikkei rose 2%, South Korea's Kospi gained 1.2% and China's composite index gained 0.3%.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.9% amid a recovery in tech counters while Australia's ASX200 added 1.3%.

       Bank stocks on Bursa Malaysia were little changed ahead of their earnings reports. Public Bank was down one sen to RM4.61, CIMB gained one sen to RM5.06, Hong Leong Bank rose 14 sen to RM21.14 and RHB was unchanged at RM5.95.

       Maybank, which had released its earnings last week, was up one sen to RM9.

       Weighing on the index was Press Metal, which shaved six sen to RM5.42, Sime Darby Plantation down three sen to RM5.02 and Petronas Gas losing six sen to RM16.64.

       Top actives on the wider market were G3 unchanged at seven sen, Green Packet unchanged at eight sen and Sapura Energy also fat at eight sen.