KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark stock index managed to pare losses at midday as risk appetite for equities continued to shrink amid the rising tensions in the Middle East and surging US Treasury yields.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 0.89 points to 1,441.77 while the overall market was significantly negative with 517 decliners to 240 gainers.

Trading volume was 2.07 billion shares valued at RM831.67mil.

PETRONAS Chemicals continued to face selling pressure, sliding 19 sne to RM7.29, while Tenaga Nasional fell 11 sne to RM9.87.

In plantations, Sime Darby Plantation dropped five sen to RM4.25 and IOI slid one sen to RM3.94.

Meanwhile, AirAsia X, which failed to have its Practice Note 17 status uplifted, dropped 10 sen to RM1.99.

Most heavily trade counters included PUC up one sen to 5.5 sen, Asdion gaining 2.5 sen to 10.5 sen and Alrich adding one sen to four sen.

In regional markets, equities prices dove to a fresh 11-month low as investors sold off equities in light of the growing uncertainties.

China’s composite index dropped 0.3% to 2,997 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.4% to 17,225.

Japan’s Nikkei slid 0.3% to 31,350 and South Korea’s Kospi plunged 1.4% to 2,382.