KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in the red with FBM KLCI sliding by 0.49 per cent, weighed down by selling activities in heavyweights led by Genting stocks and Public Bank.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 7.36 points to 1,604.43, after fluctuating between 1,602.8 and 1,611.48 throughout the morning session.
The FBM KLCI opened 0.69 points easier at 1,611.1.
On a broader market, losers outpaced gainers 465 to 219, while 331 counters were unchanged, 873 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.53 billion shares worth RM1.35 million.
Of the heavyweights, Genting Malaysia lost 41 sen to RM3.20, Genting Bhd trimmed 40 sen to RM6.25, Public Bank shed 32 sen to RM21.28, Petronas Chemicals and Hartalega both gave up six sen to RM7.31 and RM4.99, respectively.
Yesterday, Genting Malaysia (GENM) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Genting USA (GenUSA), has proposed to acquire 46 per cent of Empire Resorts (Empire) from the parent company, Kien Huat Realty (KH Realty), for US$128.6 million or RM538.8 million.
Concurrently, GENM and KH Realty will establish a joint venture to acquire the remaining shares of Empire, a gaming and entertainment company.
“We maintain our earnings forecasts and neutral recommendation on GENM pending further details on this proposed acquisition. However, we feel that the market may view a related party transaction negatively and we see the risk of share price weakness following this announcement,” said Public Investment Bank in a note.
Meanwhile, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.61, IHH Healthcare advanced seven sen to RM5.75, Axiata increased five sen to RM4.88 and TNB was flat at RM13.84.
Of the active stocks, Eduspec went up two sen to seven sen, KNM was 1.5 sen higher at 40 sen, Netx was flat at 1.5 sen, Bumi Armada edged down half-a-sen to 21 sen and Vsolar Group eased 1.5 sen to 16 sen.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 40.72 points to 11,351.77, the FBMT 100 Index was 38.41 points easier at 11,188.26 and the FBM Ace declined 28.09 points to 4,589.77.
The FBM 70 improved by 4.71 points to 14,154.0 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 14.13 points to 11,819.24.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index weakened 26.70 points to 15,784.69, the Plantation Index advanced 33.99 points to 6,614.14 and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.85 of-a-point to 150.99. ― Bernama
