KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia continued to head south at the end of the morning session, weighed down by continued sell-offs in selected heavyweights due to weak sentiments in the region, dealers said.
At the lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.87 points lower at 1,800.74. The composite index hovered between 1,798.85 and 1,808.66 throughout the morning session.
Market breadth was negative, with 497 losers and 146 gainers, while 273 counters were unchanged, 683 untraded and 48 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 627.725 million shares worth RM670.755 million.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said investors would likely play the wait-and-see game by keeping their eyes on external developments.
The research house said trading interest might also slow down as the number of market days would be cut short by the holiday season next week.
On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index declined 14.61 points to 3,064.66, the Finance Index dwindled 72.71 points to 17,264.52, while the Plantation Index fell 10.18 points to 8,395.16.
The FBM Emas Index was down 58.14 points to 12,541.91, the FBMT 100 shed 54.06 points to 12,285.22, the FBM 70 Index slid 93.05 points to 14,426.73 and the FBM ACE Index eased 2.85 points to 5,082.23.
Among actives, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) gained half a sen to 31 sen, Flonic Hi-Tec earned one sen to 13 sen, Permaju Industries inched up three sen to 44 sen while Astral Supreme slipped half-a-sen to 21 sen.
As for the heavyweights, Maybank, CIMB, Axiata and Sime Darby all shed four sen, seven sen, one sen and three sen, respectively, to RM10.66, RM8.38, RM6.83 and RM9.50, respectively. — Bernama
