KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower on a lack of buying momentum in the market. At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.74 of a point to 1,744.68, after moving between 1,740.61 and 1,749.16 throughout the morning session.

The weakness on the local bourse was also in tandem with regional stock markets, on the back of the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting.

Bank Negara Malaysia will also release data on Malaysia’s economic performance later in the day.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.79 per cent lower at 13,291.01, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng eased 1.12 per cent to 21,724.93, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.30 per cent to 3,119.47.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index edged up 0.10 of a point to 16,458.09, the Industrial Index was down 0.54 of a point to 2,940.74, and the Plantation Index dipped 11.89 points to 8,186.8.

The FBM Emas Index shed 9.29 points to 12,155.79, the FBMT100 was 10.95 points lower at 11,888.46, the FBM ACE Index added 5.76 points to 5,313.4 and the FBM 70 Index declined 37.18 points to 13,901.95.

Losers led gainers 353 to 271, with 311 counters unchanged, 650 untraded and 12 others suspended. Turnover stood at 844.449 million shares worth RM999.802 million.

Among actives, MAS inched up half-a-sen to 34.5 sen, Instacom Group gained 1sen to 41 sen, while Flonic Hi-Tec and Daya Materials were flat at 18 sen and 34.5 sen.

For the heavyweights, Maybank added 2sen to RM9.98, CIMB rose 3sen to RM7.61, Axiata was flat at RM6.65 and TNB declined 5sen to RM8.92. — Bernama