KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session lower, dragged down by selling in selected heavyweights amidst weak market sentiment.

At the lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 4.68 points to 1,491.1 from Thursday’s close of 1,495.78.

The market bellwether, which opened 0.92 points easier at 1,494.86, fluctuated between 1,490.64 and 1,498.59 throughout the session.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 438 versus 380, while 442 counters were unchanged, 933 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.39 billion units worth RM1.11 billion.

A dealer said the sentiment in the market was heavily weighed down by concerns over the local daily Covid-19 cases, which reached a record high for the second day in a row yesterday. 

Malaysia recorded 20,596 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday — the highest daily tally since the pandemic struck the country in February last year.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM7.99, Public Bank and IHH slipped one sen each to RM3.95 and RM5.71, respectively, Tenaga lost seven sen to RM9.65, CIMB shed two sen to RM4.53, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.00.

Among the actives, Kanger inched down half-a-sen to 6.0 sen, Vsolar and Encorp were flat at 1.5 sen and 32.5 sen, respectively, while BCM added half-a-sen to 16.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 21.53 points weaker at 10,959.21, the FBMT 100 Index fell 25.27 points to 10,669.57, the FBM 70 shed 2.69 points to 14,554.3, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 29.34 points to 12,039.39.

The FBM ACE, however, advanced 17.77 points to 7,190.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 39.19 points to 14,717.65, the Plantation Index gave up 4.43 points for 6,093.49, while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.55 of-a-point to 188.59. — Bernama