KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark stock index stayed sideways in morning trade as investors anticipated a raft of corporate results to be announced over the coming days.

The regional sentiment has been muted following renewed fears the US Federal Reserve may continue with its rate hikes in September following strong economic data, even as China’s stimulus measures have been seen as insufficient to bolster weakening growth.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.11 points to 1,451.68 amid a negative market breadth of 432 decliners to 348 gainers.

Trading volume was 1.97 billion shares valued at RM928.23mil.

Helping to lift the market was PETRONAS Chemicals, rising 22 sen to RM7.12 in anticipation of the release of its earnings result at the midday break.

CelcomDigi gained five sen to RM4.39 on the back of its own result announced yesterday and Press Metal climbed six sen to RM4.85.

There were mixed results in banks with Maybank rising one sen ot RM9, Public Bank down two sen to RM4.12, CIMB dropping three sen to RM5.57 and Hong Leong Bank falling six sen to RM19.78.

Tenaga Nasional slipped 10 sen to RM10.04.

Some notable gainers on the broader market included MPI gaining 26 sen to RM27, AirAsia X rising nine sen to RM2.43 and Panasonic gaining 22 sen to RM7.12.

Top actives incuded Hong Seng down 0.5 sne to 5.5 sen, CN Asia jumping 7.5 sen ot 26 sen and MYEG rising 2.5 sen to 81.5 sen.

In key regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.75% to 31,796 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,519,

China’s main index dropped 0.2% to 3,085 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2% to 17,652.