KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended their losses to end the morning session lower, weighed down by selling in heavyweight counters.
At lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI ended at 1,823.34, down 8.92 points, after fluctuating between 1,817.2 and 1,827.29 throughout the morning session.
HLIB Research in its note said the FBM KLCI is expected to lock in consolidation mode within 1,816-1,840 this week, given the on-going US Quantitative Easing tapering, China’s slowing economy, disappointing fourth quarter 2013 results of Bursa Malaysia companies coupled with still on-going political unrest in Ukraine.
“Sentiments could also be dampened by the ‘missing MAS MH370’ mystery on Saturday,” it said
The research house said a breakdown below the 1,823 level would trigger further selldown towards key supports at the 1,816 and 1,800 levels.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index lost 76.11 points to 16,472.23, the Plantation Index declined 48.6 points to 8,924 and the Industrial Index fell 16.5 points to 3,139.89.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 65.71 points to 12,643.27, the FBMT100 Index was 64.5 points lower at 12,314.1, the FBM 70 lost 89.66 points to 13,948.04 and the FBM Ace slipped 23.84 points to 6,565.67.
Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 471 to 206, while 262 counters were unchanged, 684 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover totalled 875.4 million shares worth RM773.42 million.
Among actives, Malaysia Airline lost two sen to 23 sen, Ingenuity Consolidated fell half-a-sen to 9.5 sen while Sumatec Resources was flat at 31 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank erased five sen to RM9.69, Tenaga Nasional fell six sen to RM11.92 and CIMB declined four sen to RM7.03. — Bernama
