KUALA LUMPUR: The local market turned to profit-taking amid a lack of leads as two major regional markets - China and Japan - stayed closed for the remainder of the week.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 5.44 points to 1,636.85. Trading volume was 1.49 billion shares valued at RM870.92mil. There were 570 decliners versus 191 gainers and 320 counters unchanged.

Digi contributed the most losses to the index with a 17 sen slide to RM4.43. 

Other telcos were also in the red including Axiata slipping two sen to RM3.95 and Maxis shedding six sen to RM5.30.

Among banks, Maybank put on another two sen to RM9.27 after a strong advance on Tuesday. Public Bank also gained six sen to RM22.56 while CIMB fell two sen to RM5.25 and Hong Leong Bank stayed flat at RM19.98.

Active counters in morning trade included Lambo rising 0.5 sen to 10 sen, Bumi Armada losing one sen to 22.5 sen and Ekovest sliding six sen to 82 sen.

Regional markets seeing slowed trading activity showed mixed results. Hong Kong's Hang rose 0.6% and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.4% while Australia's ASX200 slid 0.7%.

Oil prices slid on Thursday on rising US production even as Opec continued to withhold supply to prop up prices.

US crude fell 17 cents to US$63.43 a barrel and Brent crude dropped 21 cents to US$71.97 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit held relatively firm against the US dollar at 4.1375 following the US Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its policy rate.

The local currency was also little changed against the pound stelring at 5.4023 and the Singapore dollar at 3.0403.