KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today as stocks slipped into profit-taking correction mode following an overnight decline on Wall Street, dealers said.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.54 points to 1,817.56, after hovering between 1,815.41 and 1,819.74 throughout the morning session.
A dealer said Wall Street performed weaker in overnight trade, sparked by an unexpected dip in durable goods orders, suggesting a slowdown in US economic growth.
On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index firmed 6.79 points to 12,476.38, the FBMT100 Index climbed 0.689 points to 12,165.8 and the FBM Emas Shariah increased 8.02 points to 13,067.
The FBM Ace jumped 25.95 points to 6,997.1 and the FBM 70 perked 43.36 points to 13,363.19.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 31.12 points to 16,112.11, while the Industrial Index slipped 0.22 of a point to 3,346.62, and the Plantation Index decreased 6.97 points to 7,800.86.
Gainers led losers 387 to 324 with 282 counters unchanged, 792 counters untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.18 billion shares worth RM790.31 million.
Among actives, Privasia and Genetec were flat at 37.5 sen and 22.5 sen respectively.
Asia Bioenergy and Sumatec earned half a sen each to 11.5 sen and 22.5 sen respectively, and Perisai Petroleum gained 3.5 sen to 57.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata added one sen each to RM9.22 and RM7.07 respectively, Public Bank gained four sen to RM18.60 and Sime Darby climbed two sen to RM9.28.
TNB lost 10 sen to RM14.40. — Bernama
