At 12.30pm, the key index was down 7.1 points to 1,590.84. Trading in small cap counters saw turnover rise to 4.09 billion shares valued at RM1.93bil.
However, Malacca Securities Research remains bullish over the near-term market outlook.
"Despite the rising Covid-19 cases, we expect the expedition of vaccination rollouts and FMCO to eventually translate to market players focusing on the recovery theme at least for the near term," it said in a note.
On the FBM KLCI , financial heavyweights stepped back from after their recent rally, leading the market lower.
Maybank dropped four sen to RM8.20, Public Bank dipped one sen to RM4.23 and CIMB fell four sen to RM4.50.
Hong Leong Bank bucked the trend, rising six sen to RM18.46.
Meanwhile, glove counters resumed their decline as Hartalega
fell 20 sen to RM8.72, Top Glove dropped seven sen to RM5.03 and Supermax lost eight sen to RM4.02.Other laggards included Petronas Gas falling 20 sen to RM16.20 and Press Metal
shaving five sen to RM5.18.On the broader market, top actives were Greenyield
up eight sen to 35 sen, Serba Dinamik unchanged at 82.5 sen and Joe Holding up 0.5 sen to five sen.In Asian markets, equities were slightly higher ahead of key US economic data and as commodities prices continued to pace higher.
Japan's Nikkei was up 0.4% and South KOrea's KOspi climbed 1%. China's main index gained 0.4% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.4%.
Australia's ASX200 advanced 0.6%.