KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Bursa Malaysia suffered losses across-the-board at midday today along with regional bourses, dragged down by weak investor appetite ahead of the US presidential election results, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,648.34, down 15.48 points, from yesterday’s close of 1,693.82 after moving between 1,640.85 and 1,665.36 throughout the morning session.

The index opened 0.30 of-a-point higher at 1,664.12.

A dealer said the decline in the composite index was dampened by selling in key heavyweights led by Maybank which fell 11 sen to RM7.84 with 2.03 million shares transacted.

Market breadth was negative with losers trouncing gainers 835 to 84 while 200 counters were unchanged, 553 untraded and 24 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.33 billion shares worth RM959.97 million.

The FBM Emas Index fell 125.66 points to 11,573.08, FBMT100 Index eased 116.64 points to 11,292.45 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index slid 130.45 points to 12,152.09.

The FBM 70 decreased 176.69 points to 13,371.39 and the FBM Ace shed 85.13 points to 4,872.82.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index eased 25.72 points to 3,130.27, Finance Index declined 125.55 points to 14,329.35 and the Plantation Index fell 34.54 points to 7,773.92.

Kenanga Research, in a note today, expected the FBM KLCI to be in the black (albeit on a marginal basis) while awaiting the final outcome of the on-going US election result.

“A victory by Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, is likely to provide a relief rally on the local bourse, whereby the FBM KLCI could move higher towards 1,672 and possibly 1,700 next.

“On the flip side, downside pressure on the benchmark index could likely emerge over a Donald Trump victory, whereby key support could be found at 1,648 and 1,640,” it said.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional fell six sen to RM14.26, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals decreased four sen each to RM19.76 and RM6.91 respectively while Maxis erased 10 sen to RM5.82.

Among actives, RGB International declined 1.5 sen to 23 sen, AirAsia X was 1.5 sen weaker at 42 sen and Nexgram was flat at four sen. — Bernama