KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today in line with the weaker regional market as investors stayed on the sidelines, awaiting the outcome of the US monetary policy meeting, dealers said.
As at 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down 3.88 points to 1,771.06.
A dealer said regional stock markets struggled to find a footing as traders hesitated to make bold moves before the Federal Reserve winds up a crucial policy meeting later in the day.
He said the Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce a reduction in its massive bond-buying programme launched after the 2008 financial crisis to boost the tumbling US economy.
“Investors are hoping for a small reduction because the bond-buying has kept interest rates super low, making it cheaper to borrow money,” he said.
He said the low bond yields and flood of money had led investors to plow into stock markets, fuelling rallies across the globe.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 8.82 point to 16,616.55, and the Industrial Index gained 7.59 points to 3,015.81, while the Plantation Index lost 16.06 points to 8,326.12.
The FBM Emas Index went down 25.04 points to 12,282.63, the FBM100 Index was 24.5 point lower at 12,035.61 and the FBM 70 lost 20.801 points to 13,939.43 while the FBM Ace rose 5.11 points to 5,157.88.
Losers led gainers 295 to 278, with 290 counters unchanged, 725 untraded and 21 suspended.
Trading stood at 808.99 million shares worth RM541.63 million.
Among actives, CSL earned one sen to 21 sen, Maxwell gained five sen to 34 sen and Wong Engineering garnered 11.5 sen to 40.5 sen.
Asia Media and At Systematization slipped half-a-sen each to 10 sen and 13 sen, respectively.
On heavyweights, Maybank lost two sen to RM10.16, while CIMB gained one sen to RM7.59 and Petronas Chemicals earned two sen to RM6.78.
Axiata and Sime Darby were unchanged at RM6.88 and RM9.50, respectively. — Bernama
