KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended earlier losses to close the morning session lower, as sentiment was weighed by weak external factors, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed the morning trade at 1,840.34, down 5.84 points, after fluctuating between 1,838.58 and 1,848.79 throughout trading.
A dealer said most Asian markets were also in downtrend, led by China on fears that the nation may see a repeat of June’s cash crunch.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 12.69 points or six per cent to 2,115.1, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 64.62 points to 15,792.80 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 102.86 points to 22,785.89.
Another dealer said some market players were already on the sidelines ahead of the weekend and short-trading week next week due to the Christmas celebration.
Back home, the Industrial Index perked 8.86 points to 3,148.86, but the Finance Index fell 46.92 points to 16,841.6 and the Plantation Index declined 11.18 points to 8,889.28.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 39.15 points for 12,690.47, the FBMT100 Index lost 40.01 points to 12,426.31, the FBM 70 gave up 47.68 points for 14,062.94, but the FBM Ace rose 18.4 points to 5,654.54.
Losers led gainers 396 to 203, with 301 counters unchanged, 656 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover totalled 458.106 million shares worth RM436.935 million.
Among actives, both Sumatec Resources and Tiger Synergy slid one sen each to 27 sen and 17 sen respectively.
Of the heavyweights, TNB lost 10 sen to RM10.94, both Maybank and CIMB eased six sen each to RM10.04 and RM7.59 respectively, Axiata Group shed three sen to RM6.76, while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.55. — Bernama
