KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — Bursa Malaysia stayed lower at mid-day today due to the weaker global sentiment amid worries over developments in the world’s two biggest economies, dealers said.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.76 points easier at 1,728.43, after hovering between 1,723.74 and 1,743.16 throughout the morning session.
Losses in Maybank, SapuraKencana and CIMB dragged the composite index down by a total of 5.405 points.
A dealer said global investors reacted to the Federal Reserve’s announcement last week that it may act to wind down its bond-purchase programme later in the year.
Sentiment was further dragged down by concerns over a credit crunch in the world’s second largest economy, China, the dealer added.
A similar downward trend swept the region which saw Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 239.65 points to 12,823.13, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng losing 280.93 points to 19,533.05 and Singapore’s Straits Times declining 4.57 points to 3,069.83.
Back home, the Finance Index dropped 156.62 points to 16,348.31, the Industrial Index declined 5.49 points to 2,908.89, but the Plantation Index rose 61.12 points to 8,221.51.
The FBM Emas Index fell 81.24 points to 11,951, the FBMT100 Index gave up 75.48 points to 11,740.17, the FBM Mid 70 Index erased 125.17 points to 13,573.73 and the FBM Ace Index decreased 56.25 points to 4,593.19.
Losers outpaced gainers 561 to 127, with 251 counters unchanged, 653 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Volume stood at 882.305 million shares worth RM1.262 million.
Among actives, TDM gained 3.5 sen to 79 sen, Flonic Hi-Tech added half-a-sen to 8.5 sen, while Luster Industries slipped two sen to 17 sen and MAS shed half-a-sen to 29 sen.
For the heavyweights, Axiata Group and Petronas Chemicals perked one sen each to RM6.61 and RM6.59 respectively.
Meanwhile, Maybank fell 15 sen to RM9.99, CIMB trimmed eight sen to RM8.05 and Sime Darby shed one sen to RM9.39. – Bernama
