KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session broadly lower as investors remained on the sidelines amidst heightened inflationary pressure and lack of fresh catalysts.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shrank 15.08 points or 1.05 per cent to 1,425.73 from Tuesday’s close of 1,440.81.

The benchmark index, which opened 1.76 points higher at 1,442.57, moved between 1,425.08 and 1,448.09 throughout the session.

The overall market breadth was negative with losers thumping gainers 565 to 201, while 367 counters were unchanged, 1,090 untraded and seven others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.20 billion units worth RM712.87 million.

Malacca Securities said all eyes would be on Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting and the interest rate decision today. and traders may favour the banking stocks ahead of the conclusion of the MPC meeting.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.62 and CIMB rose six sen to RM5.11, while Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM4.41 and RM6.40, respectively, Petronas Chemicals trimmed 66 sen to RM8.46 and TNB depreciated nine sen to RM7.93.

Of the actives, Jade Marvel inched up half-a-sen to 91 sen, Yong Tai was flat at 8.5 sen, Sapura Energy edged down half-a-sen to four sen and Hibiscus Petroleum shed 8.5 sen to 91.5 sen.

On the index board, FBM Emas Index gave up 101.04 points to 10,142.47, FBM Emas Shariah Index shaved off 172.59 points to 10,193.54, FBM 70 shed 85.56 points to 12,222.0, FBM ACE went down 27.16 points to 4,619.81, and FBMT 100 Index fell 96.37 points to 9,897.63.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index bagged 19.37 points to 16,103.55, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 5.78 points lower at 175.17, and the Plantation Index narrowed 256.88 points to 6,558.50. — Bernama