KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-afternoon today, influenced by heavy selling in financial services stocks.

At 3.05pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 20.52 points to 1,594.53 from Friday’s close of 1,615.05.   

The benchmark index opened 0.19 of-a-point higher at 1,615.24. 

MIDF Research in its economic brief said due to heightened global economic uncertainty, major central banks including the US Federal Reserve have mooted a second rate cut this year.

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“We expect the US central bank to cut interest rate by another 25 basis points, the earliest would be in September 2019. Moving forward, we opine global economic growth including emerging markets are set to expand at a steady pace particularly if the US and China managed to seal a deal by year-end,” he said.

It added that apart from the US, other developed and emerging markets such Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Indonesia and Argentina have cut interest rates.

On Bursa Malaysia, losers overwhelmed gainers 734 to 120 while 247 counters remained unchanged, 805 untraded and 18 others suspended.

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Turnover stood at 1.39 billion units worth RM927.48 million.

Banking heavyweights, Public Bank shed 86 sen to RM20.66, Maybank lost six sen to RM8.54, Hong Leong Bank decreased 14 sen to RM17.38, CIMB fell two sen to RM5.02 and RHB eased three sen to RM5.57.

The Financial Services Index decreased 235.57 points to 15,606.42.

Of the active stocks, Ta win shed 2.5 sen to 14 sen, Genting Malaysia fell 11 sen to RM3.11, while KNM, Sapura Energy and Berjaya Corp shed one sen each to 38 sen, 27.5 sen and 25 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 114.95 points to 11,811, the FBM 70 dipped 161.59 points to 14,142.78, the FBM Emas Index went down 145.26 points to 11,295.07, the FBMT 100 Index was 139.48 points lower at 11,133, and the FBM Ace slid 95.09 points to 4,602.55. 

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 2.05 points to 150.59 and the Plantation Index trimmed 43.37 points to 6,684.04. ― Bernama