KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its fall over the morning session as investors retreated further into the sidelines ahead of US corporate earnings announcements, which would help gauge the health of the world's biggest economy.

At 12.30pm, the local benchmark index was down 5.17 points to 1,667.2. Trading volume was 1.76 billion shares valued at RM945.6mil. There were 427 decliners compared to 298 gainers and 388 counters unchanged.

Twenty-three of the 30 heavyweights on the KLCI index were negative with the biggest decliners including Nestle down 20 sen to RM147.80, Tenaga Nasional down 20 sen to RM13.68 and Digi down six sen to RM4.99.

Dialog was a rare gainer, rising eight sen to RM3.52, while MISC added four sen to RM7.34.

Actively traded counters on the stock exchange included Ekovest up 4.5 sen to 84.5 sen, Armada down 0.5 sen to 24.5 sen and Netx unchanged at 1.5 sen.

Key regional markets were also seeing slight declines. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.1% while the CSI300 Index dropped 0.3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.1% while Japan's Nikkei Index dropped 0.7% and South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.25%.

Oil prices slipped earlier in the session as oil refiners reopened for business in the wake of Hurricane Barry. Howevever, prices retraced most of their losses with US crude just three cents lower at US$59.55 a barrel.

Brent crude was four cents higher at US$66.52 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit traded flat against major currencies as investors awaited a decision on rate cuts by the Federal Reserve later this month.

The local currency was flat against the US dollar at 4.107, the pound sterling at 5.1385 and the Singapore dollar at 3.0274.