KUALA LUMPUR: The profit-taking in blue chips stocks sent the market lower on Wednesday as investors were quick to lock in gains made over the previous session.

       The FBM KLCI surged over 27 points yesterday on as the MSCI semi-annual index review spurred interest in the heavyweight counters.

       However, investors cashed out of the FBM KLCI, which was down 10.56 points at 1,559.54 at midday, following the rebalancing exercise.

       On the broader market however, stock performance was neutral with 420 decliners to 422 gainers.

       Financial stocks saw heavy selling with some of the country's leading banks reversing its recent gains.

       Maybank lost 16 sen to RM8.94, Public Bank dropped 11 sen to RM4.62 while CIMB gained six sen to RM5.21 and Hong Leong Bank was unchanged at RM21.10.

       IHH Healthcare was down 15 sen to RM6.55, Petronas Gas fell 38 sen to RM16.90 and Digi shed five sen to RM3.48.

       Meanwhile, Genting jumped 55 sen to RM5.30 as while Kuala Lumpur Kepong climbed 52 sen to RM26.08.

       In Asian markets, markets were mostly higher as investors bet that inflation levels had peaked and would moderate to more normal levels moving forward.

       Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5%, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.6% and China's composite index was unchanged.

       Hong Kong's Hang Seng however fell 0.7% after having risen to a two-week high earlier in the week on optimism over the lifting of China's lockdown measures.

       Australia's ASX200 was up 0.1%.