KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 ― Bursa Malaysia erased earlier gains as market sentiment turned weak ahead of the widely monitored Bank of Japan (BOJ) and US Federal Reserve policy meetings.
At 11.16am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,647.34, down 4.37 points against Monday's close of 1,651.71, after opening 5.2 points better at 1,656.91 this morning.
Decliners led gainers 334 to 248, while 317 counters were unchanged, 791 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 458.87 million shares worth RM383.44 million.
A dealer said buying sentiment in the local market was dampened as investors were split over what action the BOJ would undertake while bets on a potential rate hike from the US Federal Reserve remained low.
For the heavyweights, TNB eased two sen to RM14.40, Maybank fell one sen to RM7.82 and Public Bank added six sen to RM19.54.
Among actives, Iris gained one sen to 17.5 sen, DBE Gurney lost half-a-sen to four sen and Perisai Petroleum declined one sen to 11.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 26.14 points to 11,625.46, the FBMT100 Index declined 25.02 points to 11,329.44, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 36.57 points to 12,240.98.
The FBM 70 was down 11.89 points to 13,574.15 and the FBM Ace added 14.4 points to 5,223.05.
On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was 4.9 points lower at 3,082.35, the Plantation Index was 5.05 points lower at 7,828.63 and the Finance Index rose 1.62 points to 14,198.63. ― Bernama
