KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower dragged down by weak risk appetite with selling mostly in heavyweights led by Public Bank and Axiata, and other banking stocks.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 5.62 points to 1,642.34 after fluctuating between 1,641.70 and 1,648.71 throughout the session.

Public Bank and Axiata dragged the composite index down by a combined 2.749 points.

The banking stock fell 24 sen to RM22.18, while the telecommunication counter trimmed seven sen to RM5.00.

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Other financial services counters, RHB Bank lost 14 sen to RM5.51, Hong Leong Financial decreased eight sen to RM18.42, while CIMB eased four sen to RM5.10.

Market breadth remained negative with losers outnumbering gainers 471 to 269, while 379 counters were unchanged, 817 untraded and 77 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.40 billion shares worth RM816.52 million.

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A dealer said sentiment was weighed by the resumption of US-China trade talks, an expected interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, as well as the monthly American payrolls report, pushing investors to stay on the sidelines for fresh development.

As for other heavyweights, Maybank slipped one sen to RM8.72, Tenaga lost four sen to RM13.58, while Petronas Chemicals eased two sen to RM7.58.

However, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.70.

Among actives, Priceworth and KNM were flat at 6.5 sen and 43 sen, Ekovest added 4.5 sen to 87 sen, while AirAsia bagged nine sen to RM2.01.

The FBM Emas Index reduced 26 points to 11,672.42, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 25.66 points to 11,494 and the FBM Ace declined 17.82 points to 4,746.95.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 2.14 points to 12,062.63 while the FBM 70 bagged 23.48 points to 14,711.36.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 107.07 points to 16,210.88, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.11 of-a-point to 155.68, but the Plantation Index added 28.31 points to 6,806.94. — Bernama