KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session on a negative note, weighed down by profit-taking in most heavyweight counters.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 4.19 points at 1,429.55 from yesterday’s close of 1,433.74.

The benchmark index opened 2.16 points weaker at 1,431.58 and moved between 1,428.52 and 1,432.75 throughout the session.

Market breadth was also negative with decliners outpacing gainers 546 to 203, while 366 counters were unchanged, 1,127 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.78 billion units worth RM887.73 million.

Meanwhile, ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities traded sideways on Tuesday after the United States (US) stocks traded within a tight range, remaining mostly unchanged in volatile trading.

He noted that investors reacted to the US Federal Reserve's senior loan officer survey which revealed a tightening of credit availability, impacting companies' margins and signalling an imminent economic slowdown.

Additionally, investors are also eyeing China's trade data for April as its export growth is expected to ease, leading to a lower trade surplus, while import growth is expected to be nearly flat.

"Any positive surprise on the data could bring tailwinds to Asian markets due to the cyclical nature of the data. It could ease some recession fears and improve market sentiment,” he said.

Back home, heavyweights Maybank lost three sen to RM8.73 and CIMB fell six sen to RM5.10, while Tenaga Nasional added nine sen to RM9.14.

Meanwhile, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM4.01 and RM7.17, respectively.

Among the most active counters, Autocount gained 46.5 sen to 79.5 sen, BSL rose half-a-sen to five sen and Salutica increased 14.5 sen to RM1.07, while Bahvest decreased 5.5 sen to 13.5 sen and Vinvest was flat at 20 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 38.68 points to 10,427.84, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 35.78 points to 10,124.98, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 35.70 points to 10,722.16.

The FBM ACE Index dipped 118.28 points to 5,003.93 and the FBM 70 index eased 72.87 points to 13,367.14.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 1.01 points to 169.32, the Energy Index narrowed 3.56 points to 836.76, the Plantation Index slipped 36.44 points to 6,792.12, and the Financial Services Index declined 50.99 points to 15,699.80. ― Bernama