KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended the downtrend to close the morning session lower today, dragged down by losses in index-linked counters and key heavyweights due to weak regional sentiment.
At midday, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,864.79 points, down 7.76 points from yesterday's close.
Selling in TNB and Public Bank caused the index to cruise lower by 2.4 points, with shares of both falling by 14 sen and 16 sen respectively to RM11.98 and RM20.90.
Asian markets were mostly lower with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index sliding 129.61 points to 23,161.43, with Singapore's Straits Times Index easing 15.72 points to 3,280.95, but Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 20.25 points to 15,054.50.
Back home, the Finance Index fell 60.82 points to 17,211.4 points, the Plantation Index lost 55.76 points to 9,163 points, and the Industrial Index slipped 3.65 points to 3,154.26 points.
The FBM Emas Index was 48.34 points lower at 12,915.3 points, the FBMT100 Index declined 49.61 points to 12,562.55 points, the FBM 70 trimmed 45.23 points to 14,107.19 points, and the FBM Ace decreased 13.83 points to 6,557.78 points.
Losers outpaced gainers 358 to 250, while 331 counters were unchanged, 667 untraded and 18 others suspended.
In thin trading, volume amounted to 493.17 million shares worth RM551.07 million.
Of the heavyweights, both Maybank and CIMB eased three sen each to RM9.84 and RM7.21 respectively, while Axiata was flat at RM6.90.
Among actives, Salcon rose four sen to 82.5 sen, and JAKS gained 1.5 sen to 60.5 sen, while Tiger Synergy was flat at 14 sen. ― Bernama
