KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in negative territory, weighed on by a continuous sell-off, particularly in heavyweight counters ahead of the 14th General Elections on May 9.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 12.91 points to 1,828.92 from 1,841.83 at close on last Friday.
After opening 0.73 of-a-point higher at 1,842.56 this morning, the FBM KLCI moved between 1,821.79 and 1,842.56 throughout the session.
Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 683 to 138, while 304 counters remained unchanged, 736 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Volume stood at 1.09 billion units valued at RM729.65 million.
Maybank led the losses among heavyweights, easing eight sen to RM10.54, followed by CIMB which dropped nine sen to RM6.68, IHH Healthcare slid seven sen to RM5.94, Hong Leong Bank fell 22 sen to RM18.38 and Maxis was six sen lower at RM5.58.
For actives, Borneo Oil and MQtech were unchanged at eight sen and six sen respectively, Sapura Energy inched down one sen to 64.5 sen, while Sumatec and Nexgram shed half-a-sen each to four sen and six sen.
Among losers, Nestle topped the list in dipping RM1.10 to RM134.70, Dutch Lady lost 46 sen to RM66.50, Panasonic Manufacturing contracted 40 sen to RM34.70, Mercury Industries was 25 sen lower at RM1.21 and Ayer Holdings eased 24 sen to RM5.51.
The FBM Emas Index retreated 94.85 points to 12,764.44, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 88.45 points to 12,580.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 99.24 points to 12,988.20, the FBM Ace dipped 115.91 points to 5,112.26 and the FBM 70 lost 105.47 points to 15,173.41.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slipped 18.44 points to 3,186.59 and the Finance Index was 146.26 points weaker at 17,803.12, as the Plantation Index gave up 65.48 points for 7,840.23. — Bernama
