KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower today on cautious sentiment ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, dealers said.
The sentiment also triumphed over the better data in China's gross domestic growth.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.26 points lower at 1,665.25, compared with yesterday's close of 1,666.51.
It opened 1.35 points lower at 1,665.16.
A dealer said Trump's approach to fiscal policy continued to weighed on the market, despite China posting a better than expected GDP growth of 6.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, and beating expectations of 6.7 per cent.
“The figures likely signal that China's economic growth is starting to stabilise amid the country's transition toward domestic consumption and away from manufacturing and investment-led growth,” he added.
The FBM Emas Index eased 8.82 points to 11,678.3, the FBMT100 Index was 8.931 points lower at 11,382.31 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 5.3 points to 12,167.58.
The FBM 70 declined 11.86 points to 13,386.22 and the FBM Ace decreased 13.04 points to 4,998.31.
On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index edged down 7.51 points to 3,133.74 and the Plantation Index slid 14.85 points to 7,898.37.But, the Finance Index improved 3.11 points to 14,741.79.
Losers outpaced gainers 352 to 229, while 365 counters were unchanged, 794 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 834.54 million shares worth RM648.01 million. Among heavyweights, Maybank improved one sen to RM8.26.
TNB, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals eased two sen each to RM13.86, RM20.08 and RM7.17 respectively, and Sime Darby slipped one sen to RM8.53.
Of actives, UMW-OG shed 14.5 sen to 74 sen, and Hibiscus Petroleum slipped half a sen to 46 sen, as Icon Offshore perked 3.5 sen to 47 sen and TH Heavy Engineering bagged one sen to 16.5 sen. Matang was flat at 13.5 sen. — Bernama
