KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today in line with the weaker performance of regional stock markets, dealers said.

They added that the performance came in the wake of indications from the US Federal Reserve of a sooner than expected rise in interest rates.

At the lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,813.33, down 4.11 points, after hovering between 1,811.16 and 1,815.99.

A dealer said Asian stocks fell following overnight comments from the US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen that interest rates might rise after the end of scheduled stimulus tapering and as early as the middle of next year.

“It’s significant that the Federal Reserve fund rate will rise to 1 per cent by the end of 2015 and we could see capital outflows from emerging markets back into the US, especially given residual concerns about China’s economy slowing,” said one dealer.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 42.3 points to 16,374.71, the Industrial Index lost 14.43 points to 3,147.59, and the Plantation Index eased 8.82 points to 8,840.

The FBM Emas Index was down 26.09 points to 12,569, the FBMT100 Index declined 26.42 points to 12,235.49, the FBM Ace contracted 46.96 points to 6,627.38 and the FBM 70 gave up 24.779 points to 13,815.49.

Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 421 to 234, while 306 counters were unchanged, 661 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover totalled 778.08 million shares worth RM714.86 million.

Among actives, MQ Technology and Green Packet earned 0.5 sen each to 13.5 sen and 48.5 sen respectively, and Insas gained 2.5 sen to 93 sen. Ingenuity was flat at 10 sen and Xidelang lost 1 sen to 8.5 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank lost 3 sen to RM9.54, CIMB slipped 2 sen to RM7.05 and Sime Darby shed 9 sen to RM9.11. TNB added 2 sen to RM11.96 and Axiata gained 3 sen to RM6.52. — Bernama