At 5pm, the key index was down 1.93 points to 1,606.14, snapping four straight days of gains. Trading activity however was robust with 12.6 billion shares traded for a value of RM5.79bil.
News over the Feb 26 start of the Malaysian vaccination programme had lifted the domestic market in recent days even as the wider global scenario turned optimistic on the ongoing recovery and US stimulus measures.
However, the FBM KLCI remained under pressure by the 50-day simple moving average, which serves as a technical resistance to further advance.
Leading laggards in the Tuesday session included Tenaga Nasional down 28 sen to RM9.90, Top Glove dropping 11 sen to RM6.06, Sime Darby Plantation
sliding 10 sen to RM4.85 and Petronas Gas losing six sen to RM16.24.In the energy sector, stocks were buoyed by the increase in crude oil prices. The Bursa Malaysia Energy Index climbed over 3% to 915.14 with most stocks in positive territory.
Among these, Dialog added 15 sen to RM3.30, Hengyuan Refining
jumped 12 sne to RM5.99, Petra Energy gained seven sen to RM1.14 and Serba Dinamik rose three sen to RM1.74.On the broader market, consumer stocks saw some buying interest with Heineken adding 48 sen to RM23.96, Nestle gaining 40 sen to RM136.70 and Carlsberg adding 22 sen to RM22.56.
Top traded counters were Dagang Nexchange
, up five sen to 54 sne on the back of 598.88 million shares exchanging hands, DGB jumping five sen to 14.5 sen on 594.91 million shares crossing and ARBB gaining three sen to 36.5 sen on 412.3 million shares traded.The rally in Asian markets remained intact with Japan's Nikkei rising 1.4%.
While China's markets were closed for holidays, Hong Kong's Hang gained 1.4%. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.5% and Australia's ASX200 added 0.7%.