KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session easier in a cautious trading as investors focused on the cues from international markets, while a lack of news locally dampened investors’ appetite.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.22 points to 1,622.97 from 1,626.19.

The barometer index opened 2.28 points higher at 1,628.47, but subsequently began retreating, hitting a low of 1,620.35 at one point.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 617 to 423, while 408 counters were unchanged, 789 untraded and 37 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.66 billion shares worth RM2.24 billion.

Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd said the current quiet environment due to a lack of news may not be good news for investors who were eager to dabble on new investment themes and stock ideas.

"It is going to be fairly quiet in terms of news flows, mainly from the corporate front with just the quarterly result announcements,” it added.

From a technical perspective, the key index may give back some of the month-to-date gains of 3.1 per cent and technical indicators suggested that the key market barometer could see weakness ahead, possibly drifting towards the 1,600 psychological mark.

Back home, banking-heavyweights, Maybank and PBBank were flat at RM8.38 and RM4.23, respectively, while CIMB was four sen easier at RM4.54 and HLBank declined two sen at 19.08.

For other heavyweight counters, Tenaga and PMetal were 22 sen higher at RM10.78 and RM10.04, respectively, while Topglov added four sen to RM5.45 and PChem was seven sen easier at RM8.15.

As for the active counters, Macpie added 7.5 sen to 63 sen but its warrant erased two sen at 10 sen, Ucrest was three sen higher at 25.5 sen, Sealink, MAG and its warrant all added 1.5 sen each to 27.5 sen, 23 sen and 10 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 23.78 points to 11,899.43, the FBMT 100 eased 24.43 points to 11,577.15, and the FBM Emas Shariah fell 24.31 points to 13,205.57, and the FBM 70 reduced 38.58 points to 15,650.76.

However, the FBM ACE improved 128.43 points to 10,763.30.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 33.25 points to 15,476.40, the Plantation Index inched down 2.66 points to 7,172.960 but the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.32 of-a-point to 193.45. — Bernama