KUALA LUMPUR: Banks weighed on the 30-FBM KLCI, sending it decisively below the key 1,300-level at the midday break on Friday, March 19 while the broader market saw declining stocks beating advancers two to one.

Despite the losses in bank stocks, the volume was still rather thin except for CIMB which saw 2.58 million shares. Banks are usually indicative of investors' perception whether the markets will rise or decline and so far sentiment has been cautious since mid-last week.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 6.18 points to 1,295.76. Turnover was 271.38 million shares valued at RM465.6 million. There were 166 gainers, 345 losers and 277 stocks unchanged.

Key regional markets were mixed with the Nikkei 225 up 0.6% to 10,808.93, Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.32% to 2,923.38 while Shanghai's Composite Index fell 0.3% to 3,037.06 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 0.2% to 21,288.29.

Crude palm oil futures fell RM7 to RM2,542, light crude oil slipped 21 cents to US$81.99 while US spot gold lost US$2.87 to US$1,124.48.

Hong Leong Bank fell 13 sen to RM8.55, CIMB and Public Bank 10 sen each to RM13.42 and RM11.52 while Maybank shed six sen to RM7.24.

Jobstreet fell 11 sen to RM1.91 but in thin trade. The shares had risen after the entry of a major shareholder -- SEEK Ltd -- market leader in Australia's jobs website, with 21.35% or 66.89 million shares.

SP Setia shed nine sen to RM4.06. OSK Research maintains its Take Profit call on SP Setia with a current year (CY10) target price of RM3.59 based on 1.69 times CY10 price/ net tangible assets.

Top Glove was the top gainer, adding 18 sen to RM12.60 while Tanjong rose 16 sen to RM17.96. Among the smaller plantation stocks, Sarawak Plantations rose nine sen to RM2.21 and NSOP eight sen to RM4.50.

The warrants of mTouche jumped 12 sen to 12.5 sen on the first trading day.