KUALA LUMPUR: Investors retreated to the sidelines early Friday due to the lack of strong convincing reasons to pick up riskier assets though key Asian markets extended their gains after Wall Street ended higher.

At 9.11am, the FBM KLCI was down 2.78 points or 0.16% to 1,687.94. There were 146 gainers, 83 losers and 137 counters unchanged. Turnover was 140 million shares valued at RM36.38mil.

Asia stocks inched higher on Friday after Wall Street ended volatile trade in the green, adding to the massive gains of the previous session although lingering investor jitters helped support safe-haven currencies such as the yen, Reuters reported.

BAT fell 62 sen to RM35.74, Aeon Credit 30 sen to RM15, Carlsberg 28 sen to RM19.48 while PPB Group lost 18 sen to RM17.02 and KL Kepong 16 sen to RM23.98 in very thin trade.

MAHB lost 14 sen to RM8.30 and Petronas Chemical 10 sen to RM9.26.

MFlour-LR fell 26.5 sen to two sen and its rights shares 12.5 sen lower at 1.5 sen.

CYL gained 10 sen to 58 sen, Genetec nine sen to RM1.66, Padini and KLCC up eight sen each to RM3.59 and RM7.75 while MISC added seven sen to RM6.40.