KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — Bursa Malaysia’s benchmark index had eased at midday as choppy trading weighed on the benchmark index amidst cautious investor sentiments.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped by 0.21 of-a-point to 1,426.83 from last Friday’s closing of 1,427.04.

The barometer index opened 0.85 points higher at 1,427.89 and traded between 1,425.19 and 1,429.42 during the morning trading session.

The market breadth was negative as decliners surpassed gainers 382 to 304, while 374 counters were unchanged, 1,157 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.71 billion units worth RM704.61 million.

In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said investors may continue to monitor the rising tension between the United States (US) and China, while waiting for the US inflation data and the Federal Open Market Committee minutes set to be released this week to gauge the US Federal Reserve’s aggressiveness in the future rate hikes.

Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, CIMB ticked up one sen to RM5.17, both Maybank and Public Bank remained flat at RM8.66 and RM3.99, respectively, Petronas Chemicals declined 10 sen to RM7.40 sen and TNB lost five sen to RM9.18.

As for the actives, Sarawak Consolidated gained one sen to 13 sen, Techna-X, Zen Tech International and Reach Energy remained flat at two sen, 2.5 sen and five sen, respectively, and Meta Bright lost half-a-sen to 18 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 11.10 points to 10,489.54, the FBMT 100 Index earned 12.03 points to 10,173.07, the FBM 70 Index rose 72.10 points to 13,710.85 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 12.689 points to 10,835.35, while the FBM ACE Index was 15.36 points lower at 5,311.32.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 10.52 points to 15,711.79 and the Plantation Index increased 55.22 points to 6,786.89, while the Energy Index dropped 0.51 of-a-point to 863.00 and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.58 of-a-point to 174.17. — Bernama