KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia finished the morning session lower today in line with Asia stocks, on renewed worries that the US Federal Reserve could start rolling back its stimulus earlier than expected, dealers said.
At the lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.25 points to 1,805.36, after hovering between 1,800.95 and 1,806.49 during the session.
A dealer said the better-than-expected US gross domestic product growth, which expanded 2.8 per cent for the third quarter, increased expectations that the giant economy might begin to taper its monetary stimulus programme sooner than later.
“The performance was despite Malaysia’s higher September exports of RM63.28 billion, the highest registered this year, an increase of 5.6 per cent from September last year and a 0.6 per cent increase from August this year.
“Total trade for the month under review amounted to RM117.89 billion, up 4.2 per cent from September last year,” he added.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 26.27 points to 16,746.25 while the Industrial Index lost 8.33 points to 3,114.76 and the Plantation Index shed 1.96 points to 8,621.58.
The FBM Emas Index contracted 2.68 points to 12,570.02, the FBMT100 Index inched down three points to 12,293.90 while the FBM 70 was 18.96 points higher at 14,342.47 and the FBM Ace Index gained 48.31 points to 5,867.14.
Losers outpaced gainers by 323 to 292, with 327 counters unchanged, 647 untraded and 27 others suspended. Volume stood at 1.01 billion shares worth RM773.83 million.
Among actives, Tafi Industries rose 0.5 sen to 31.5 sen, Cypark garnered 1 sen to RM2.26 and MAA Group chalked up 2 sen to 63 sen. NetX and Nova MSC were both unchanged at 7.5 sen and 6.5 sen respectively.
Of the heavyweights, Felda Global Ventures was 2 sen higher at RM4.36, UEM Sunrise gained 3 sen to RM2.39 and MISC edged up 6 sen to RM5.07. Maybank and RHB Capital advanced 4 sen each to RM9.95 and RM7.78 respectively. — Bernama
