KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia tracked key Southeast Asian markets lower at midday on Tuesday on growing worries about the slowing economic growth with the US-China trade tension casting a pall of gloom.

At 12.30pm, the KLCI was down 6.1 points or 0.37% to 1,657.21. Turnover was 744.73 million shares valued at RM663.86mil. There were 191 gainers, 446 losers and 299 counters unchanged.

Most Southeast Asian stock markets fell as lacklustre data from major economies including China and Japan have fanned worries about global economic activity, while Philippines shares edged higher ahead of the central bank policy meeting this week,

Reuters reported the equities tracked broader Asia with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan diving more than 16% so far this year. It had surged 33.5% in 2017. 

At Bursa, Petronas Dagangan fell 34 sen to RM25.30 and Hong Leong Bank 18 sen lower at RM20.12.

BAT fell 68 sen to RM36.02, Heineken 28 sen to RM19.92 and Apollo 19 sen to RM3.69.

Retailer Padini lost 21 sen to RM3.68 on concerns about its earnings growth.

Prestariang lost 2.5 sen to 28 sen with 34.14 million shares done after the cancellation of the RM3.5bil national immigration control system (SKIN) concession.

However, F&N rose 24 sen to RM32.28, Ajinomoto 20 sen to RM18.30, Nestle 20 sen also to RM145.10 and Carlsberg 12 sen to RM19.38.