KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at mid-day today on lack of buying support for heavyweight counters as sentiment was in tandem with regional peers, dealers said.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.02 points lower at 1,619.18 from yesterday’s close of 1,623.20.
The key index opened 1.10 points lower at 1,622.09 and moved between 1,618.30 and 1,623.93 throughout the morning session.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 384 to 159 while 343 counters remained unchanged, 871 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 488.57 million shares worth RM400.10 million.
Asian markets were lower at mid-day with Nikkei 225 down 0.09 per cent at 19,427.67, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.53 per cent to 21,521.75 and Singapore’s Straits Times declined 0.36 per cent to 2,872.04.
A dealer said the subdued market tone was due to the external front as the overnight Wall Street retreated in thin trading ahead of the Christmas celebration.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell eight sen to RM7.68, Public Bank eased two sen to RM19.66 while TNB and Petronas Chemicals were both flat at RM13.74 and RM6.91, respectively.
Among actives, Borneo Oil added one sen to 17.5 sen, Asia Bioenergy Tech rose half-a-sen to 5.5 sen while both MQ Technology and Hibiscus Petroleum were flat at 5.5 sen and 36.5 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index shed 34.52 points to 11,330.49, the FBMT100 Index declined 34.84 points to 11,052.41 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 31.64 points to 11,919.18.
The FBM 70 lost 69.10 points to 12,941.09 but the FBM Ace bucked the trend adding 17.33 points to 4,755.23.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 58.55 points to 14,137.46, the Industrial Index fell 8.54 points to 3,066.84 and the Plantation Index eased 35.67 points to 7,681.40. — Bernama
