While investors welcomed China's efforts to curb the spread of the Wuhan coronovirus, news wires reported that the number of deaths from the flu-like virus was nine while there were 440 confirmed cases.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLC was down 0.8 points to 1,586.53. Trading volume was 1.92 billion shares valued at RM1.22bil. There were 474 decliners versus 307 gainers and 339 counters unchanged.
Glove makers continued to gain on expectation that a potential global outbreak of the coronavirus would spur demand for medical gloves.
Supermax was among the top traded stocks in the morning session, jumping 11 sen to RM1.56.
Top Glove, the world's largest supplier of rubber gloves, climbed 31 sen to RM5.42, while Hartalega gained 25 sen to RM6.05 and Kossan
grew 27 sen to RM4.74.Outside of the Big Four players, Comfort Gloves added six sen to 87.5 sen, Ruberex gained 2.5 sen to 63 sen and Careplus was unchanged at 23 sen.
Apart from the KLCI-listed glove makers, there were few positive performances on the index. IHH however climbed 10 sen to RM5.83.
Dragging on the FBM KLCI, Malaysia Airport lost 19 sen to RM6.80 while plantation counter KL Kepong dropped 18 sen to RM24.22 and Genting slipped 11 sen to RM6.01.
Oil markets eased on Wednesday following predictions of a market surplus by the International Energy Agency despite the supply disruptions in Libya.
US crude was down 28 cent to US$58.10 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 26 cents to US$64.33 a barrel.
On the forex market, the ringgit was flat against a basket of key currencies ahead of Bank Negara's monetary policy decision later today.
It was unchanged against the US dollar at 4.072, the pound sterling at 5.3091 and Singapore dollar at 3.0156.
