KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ended the morning session lower, dampened by selling in index-linked counters led by Petronas Chemicals (PetChem).

At lunch break, the benchmark index fell 7.28 points to 1,675.94 from Friday's close of 1,675.94.

It moved between 1,674.67 and 1,684.19 in morning trade, after opening 0.17 of a point weaker at 1,683.05.

PetChem dragged the composite index down by 5.896 points after falling 42 sen to RM8.27 with 3.69 million shares changing hands.

The downtrend on Bursa was in tandem with regional peers as risk appetite was weighed on by worries over the ongoing US government shutdown, the gloomy prospects for US interest rate hikes, coupled with heightened concerns over Chinese trade data.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.38 per cent to 26,299.18, Singapore Straits Times Index eased 0.43 per cent to 3,185.00 and South Korea’s Kospi was 0.7 per cent lower at 2,061.02.

Japan’s Nikkei 225, however, bucked the regional trend and rose 0.97 per cent to 20, 359.70.

Back home, the overall market breadth was dour as losers led gainers 419 to 266, while 291 counters were unchanged, 886 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.25 billion shares worth RM552.59 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank lost 10 sen each to RM9.35 and RM24.66 respectively, and Tenaga eased two sen to RM13.84, but CIMB added one sen to RM5.66.

Of actives, Perisai shed 2.5 sen to five sen, Sapura Energy was flat at 31 sen, while Hubline gained half-a-sen to 16.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 47.94 points lower at 11,570.09, the FBMT 100 Index lost 47.71 points to 11,453.51, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 61.97 points to 11,505.49 and the FBM 70 declined 47.96 points to 13,543.42.

However, the FBM Ace Index rose 28.87 points to 4,486.97.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index contracted 57.51 points to 17,358.12, the Plantation Index slipped 5.8 points to 7,111.84 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 3.18 points to 161.69. — Bernama