KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 1): The FBM KLCI started the final quarter of 2014 on a tepid note as regional markets succumbed to the jitters arising from the civil unrest in Hong Kong, and weaker overnight close at Wall Street.

At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI shed 0.78 points to 1,845.43.

Gainers led losers by 136 to 96, while 174 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 173.51 million shares valued at RM44.28 million.

The top losers included Petronas Gas, Hong Leong Bank, United Plantations, Lafarge Malaysia, PPB, Genting, DKSH, Ta Ann, Mega First Corp and Cahya Mata Sarawak.

Regionally, Asian shares got off on the back foot on Wednesday as continued civil unrest in Hong Kong sapped confidence, while the dollar index was in sight of a four-year high after marking its best quarterly gain in six years, according to Reuters.

Trading in Asia was expected to be more subdued than usual, with China closed for National Day and investors warily monitoring developments in Hong Kong's pro-democracy unrest, as thousands of protesters stepped up pressure on the city's pro-Beijing government, it said.

BIMB Securities in a market preview Wednesday said that in Asia, markets closed on a mixed note on Tuesday as sentiments remain affected by the unrest in Hong Kong.

It said that in line with the regional weakness, the FBM KLCI suffered some late selling activities as the index closed flat at 1,846.31 or 0.03 point lower.

“Foreign funds were again the main culprits as yesterday’s net foreign outflow gathered momentum to a tune of RM136.2 million.

“We noticed net foreign outflow over the last 7 trading days had aggregated to almost RM600 million thus may curtail any uptrend of the local bourse going forward.

“Today we expect the index to gravitate towards the 1,840 level,” it said.