Discrete kinetic shear Alfv(?)n modes driven by ion temperature gradient (AITG) is investigated in the full gyrokinetic limit. It is shown that AITG instability may occur when the plasma pressure gradient is well below the threshold value for ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) ballooning instabilities, and that the critical magnetic shear required to completely stabilize the former is significantly higher than that for the latter. In addition, finite-β(=plasma pressure/magnetic pressure) effects on toroidal electrostaticion temperature gradient (ITG) modes are