KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia were traded lower at mid-morning today as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting today, dealers said.
At 11.01am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 3.69 points to 1,771.25, after opening 2.43 points lower at 1,777.41.
A dealer said profit-taking after recent strength capped near-term upside, with most investors remaining on the sidelines pending the outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on stimulus reduction which will only be known tomorrow.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 23.58 points to 16,631.31, the Industrial Index gained 7.4 points to 3,015.62, while the Plantation Index eased 5.59 points to 8,336.59.
The FBM Emas Index fell 25.46 points to 12,282.21, the FBM100 Index was 25.15 points lower at 12,034.96, the FBM Ace lost 19.23 points to 5,133.54, while the FBM 70 lost 29.53 points to 13,930.7.
Decliners led advancers 249 to 244, with 254 counters unchanged, 841 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Volume stood at 615.69 million shares worth RM333.15 million.
Actives, CSL gained one sen to 21 sen, Maxwell added 5.5 sen to 34.5 sen and Wong Engineering chalked up 13.5 sen to 42.5 sen.
Asia Media and Dataprep slipped half a sen each to four sen and 28.5 sen, respectively.
Among heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM10.20, CIMB earned one sen to RM7.59 and Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM6.79.
Axiata and Sime Darby were unchanged at RM6.88 and RM9.50, respectively. — Bernama
