KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at mid- afternoon today with 16 components of the 30-stock index staying in the red, 10 in green while four remained unchanged.
A dealer said investors, particularly institutional players, chose to stay on the sidelines in the absence of market catalysts to stimulate their buying interest.
At 3.05pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.53 points easier at 1,569.58 from Thursday’s close of 1,571.11.
The index opened 1.81 points better at 1,572.92.
Market breadth remained negative, with 392 losers edging 284 gainers, while 367 counters were unchanged, 955 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.43 billion shares worth RM791.86 million.
Among heavyweights, Tenaga lost 10 sen to RM13.76, Axiata and Maxis decreased three sen each to RM4.26 and RM5.47 respectively, Hong Leong Bank was 12 sen weaker at RM16.68 and CIMB fell one sen to RM4.97.
However, two out of three key index-linked plantation counters continued to gain traction from investors after the local palm oil futures hit a 16-month high on Thursday on higher export expectations for October.
IOI Corp increased three sen to RM4.28 and Sime Darby Plantation bagged one sen to RM4.73. KLK, however, retreated two sen to RM21.58.
Of the actives, Velesto rose 1.5 sen to 36 sen while its warrant improved half-a-sen to 15 sen, Green Packet warrant added half-a-sen to 33.5 sen while Vsolar and NetX were unchanged at 5.5 sen and 2.5 sen respectively.
Top loser Vitrox fell 48 sen to RM7.59, BAT gave up 48 sen to RM18.90, Hong Leong Industries was 28 sen lower at RM10.62, Aeon Credit slipped 24 sen to RM15.74 and MPI went down 20 sen to RM11.30.
The FBM 70 contracted 81.22 points to 13,982.27, the FBMT 100 Index shed 23.22 points to 10,970.54 while the FBM Ace garnered 11.74 points to 4,869.86.
The FBM Emas Index slid 24.80 points to 11,158.94 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 24.72 points to 11,786.91.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index grew 2.01 points to 15,172.07, the Plantation Index put on 7.38 points to 6,607.85 but the Industrial Products & Services Index trimmed 0.23 of-a-point to 153.01. — Bernama
