KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 ― Bursa Malaysia finished the morning session lower in sync with the downtrend seen in the regional markets.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.05 points to 1,584.91 from yesterday's close of 1,587.96.

The index opened 1.55 points better at 1,589.51 today and moved between 1,581.88 and 1,590.77 throughout the session.

Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 558 to 308, while 467 counters were unchanged, 815 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 3.37 billion shares worth RM1.59 billion.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.30 per cent to 28,876.87, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.07 per cent to 28,762.26 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was 0.27 per cent lower at 3,158.45.

An analyst said regional markets continued their downtrend today tracking the overnight mixed performance of the US stock markets, as a lack of clear market catalysts kept investors on the sidelines.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said Wall Street remained stuck in a narrow range as traders still had a "wait and see” attitude ahead of US economic data release.

The DJI Average was down 30 points to end at around the 34,600 mark while the Nasdaq gained 43 points, inching closer to the 14,000 level.

"In view of this, we believe regional markets are expected to be mixed today in the absence of any clear catalysts.

"Back home, we believe some profit taking may emerge following yesterday’s solid closing; therefore, we reckon the FBM KLCI would hover within the 1,580-1,590 range today,” it said in a note today.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.20, Public Bank eased four sen to RM4.23 and PetChem gained three sen to RM8.09.

Of the actives, Focus Dynamics fell half-a-sen to four sen, Serba Dinamik added two sen to 64 sen and Dagang Nexchange rose half-a-sen to 85.5 sen.

Top losers included Nestle which slid RM1.10 to RM134.90, Greatech which erased 60 sen to RM5.20 and Panasonic which lost 30 sen to RM32.60.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 30.65 points to 11,551.62, the FBMT 100 Index eased 30.86 points to 11,240.69, and the FBM ACE trimmed 113.26 points to 7,599.14.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 34.69 points to 12,695.02 and the FBM 70 weakened 76.90 points to 14,944.82.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 51.15 points to 15,311.27, the Industrial Products and Services Index went down 1.04 points to 192.63, and the Plantation Index declined 33.47 points to 6,783.56. ― Bernama