KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session marginally lower in tandem with regional peers as trade concerns returned to focus and curbed investors risk appetite.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.5 points weaker at 1,685.63 from yesterday’s close of 1,687.13.

It moved between 1,679.18 and 1,689.34 throughout the morning session.

Losses in Axiata dragged down the composite index by 2.734 points. The stock fell 17 sen to RM4.00 with 740,400 shares changing hands.

A dealer said Asian equities were in full retreat after the United States said it would impose tariffs on an additional US$200 billion (RM806 billion) worth of Chinese imports, sharply escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 512 to 178, while 342 counters were unchanged, 837 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.1 billion units valued at RM862.55million.

Of the heavyweights, Public Bank rose two sen to RM22.74, Tenaga garnered six sen to RM14.48, while both Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.14 and RM8.54 respectively.

CIMB and IHH Healthcare slipped one sen each to RM5.34 and RM5.89.

Among actives, Sapura Energy and Diversified Gateway shed one sen each to 59.5 sen and 7.5 sen respectively, while Nova MSC inched down half-a-sen to 17.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index fell 43.43 points to 11,864.75, the FBM70 gave up 158.96 points for 14,352.95 and the FBMT100 Index declined 39.77 points to 11,672.24.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 72.96 points lower at 11,983.56 and the FBM Ace Index lost 79.59 points to 5,216.02.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index declined 16.4 points to 3,134.22 and the Plantation Index edged down 22.82 points to 7,489.48.

However, the Finance Index rose 12.56 points to 16,534.03 as investors stayed upbeat on the overnight policy rate (OPR), which is likely to be kept unchanged at Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Meeting today. — Bernama