KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today with sellers broadly outpacing gainers and in line with the regional markets. 

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 8.19 points to 1,716.39 from 1,724.58 at close yesterday.

The benchmark index opened 0.99 of-a-point higher at 1,725.57 and moved in a range of between 1,716.34 and 1,726 throughout the session.

Market breadth on Bursa Malaysia was negative as losers thumped gainers 599 to 213, while 291 counters were unchanged, 778 untraded and 58 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.47 billion shares worth RM880.65 billion.

For heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals rose seven sen to RM9.23, Hong Leong Bank gained two sen to RM21.30, Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM25.02 and RM5.84 respectively, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.53, TNB eased six sen to RM13.44 and IHH Healthcare declined seven sen to RM5.68. 

Among actives, GD Express increased five sen to 35.5 sen, while Econpile decreased 7.5 sen to 45.5 sen, Sapura Energy and Bumi Armada edged down half-a-sen to 31.5 sen and 19.5 sen. Seacera declined one sen to 35.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum went down four sen to RM1.02.

The FBM Emas Index was 55.63 points lower at 11,945.31, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 47.36 points to 11,809.06 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 90.16 points to 11,870.48.

The FBM 70 Index went down 19.96 points to 14,292.6 and the FBM Ace Index declined 31.93 points to 4,655.05.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index inched down 0.4 of-a-point to 17,842.4, the Plantations Index went down 46.08 points to 7,380.94 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.47 of-a-point to 168.57. — Bernama