KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was lower in the early session today, weigh on by losses in selected heavyweights, led by United Plantations and Tenaga Nasional.

At 9.10am, the index was down by 1.36 points to 1,716.76 after opening marginally higher by 0.59 of a point at 1,718.71.

A dealer said Asian stocks fell broadly on Thursday, prompted by lower commodity prices, the Federal Reserve’s signal that it would hike interest rates at a slower pace than expected, and lingering concerns that Greece might be edging closer to a debt default.

Alliance DBS Research said market participants are expected to continue to be on the selling side, due to Bursa Malaysia’s inability to trade higher than the 1,727.30 yesterday, which prompted renewed selling pressure.

It said, an analysis of the overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure. 

As such, the FBM KLCI is likely trade below the 1,714.22 level today, the research house added.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 2.58 points to 11,884.83, the FBMT100 Index decreased 2.84 points to 11,578.82, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index shed 16.79 points to 12,335.27.  

The FBM 70 added 20.88 points to 13,055.67 and the FBM Ace improved 36.75 points to 6,227.33.

On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index appreciated 1.20 points to 7,256.03, the Finance Index was up 8.61 points to 15,564.91 and the Industrial Index added 3.08 points to 3,159.94.

Gainers led losers 135 to 59 with 136 counters unchanged, 1,484 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 86.58 million shares worth RM46.42 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank added three sen each to RM9.27, Public Bank gained four sen to RM18.80 and Sime Darby improved two sen to RM8.62 Tenaga Nasional was down 14 sen to RM12.46 and Axiata shed three sen to RM12.46, while United Plantations fell 30 sen to RM26.70.

For actively-traded stocks, AirAsia gained two sen to RM1.69, IFCA MSC added three sen to RM1.16 sen, Frontken edged up half-a sen to 25.5 sen, while Ingenuity Consolidated was flat at 7.5 sen.  — Bernama