In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the new growth forecast for the year could be cut to about 4% from the current 6% to 7.5%.
At 12.30pm, the country's main index was down 5.63 points to 1,514.95.
"On the back of fresh bearish technical signals as illustrated by the parabolic trend reversal and negative momentum indicator, the benchmark index – already down 77.4 points or 4.8% since 2 June – will probably resume its downward bias to test our first support line of 1,510 (S1).
"Should S1 give way, this may then force the FBMKLCI to slip under the 1,500-psychological mark and slide towards our next support threshold of 1,475 (S2), a level where the key market bellwether had previously bounced off thrice between end-June and early November last year," said Kenanga Research in its weekly outlook.
The country's leading financial heavyweight Maybank was down six sen to RM8.07 while Hong Leong Bank fell 16 sen to RM18.50.
Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.08 while CIMB added two sen to RM4.51.
Other decliners included Sime Darby Plantation
down five sen to RM3.79, Top Glove shedding five sen to RM3.77 and Digi sliding five sen to RM4.19.On the broader market, top actives were MPay up two sen to 27 sen , YBS jumping 12 sen to 47.5 sen and Serba Dinamik
gaining 0.5 sen to 46 sen.Meanwhile, Asian shares enjoyed a relief rally, tracking record highs on Wall Street and policy easing in China.
Japan's Nikkei surged 2.2% while South Korea's Kospi climbed 1%.
In China, the main index gained 0.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7%.
Australia's ASX200 was up 0.7%.