KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Bursa Malaysia turned negative at mid-morning today despite being supported by plantation-linked counters after the local palm oil futures hit a 16-month high on Thursday on higher export expectations for October.
A dealer said this was due to the absence of fresh catalysts.
At 11.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.07 points to 1,569.04 from Thursday's close of 1,571.11.
The key index opened 1.81 points better at 1,572.92.
Market breadth turned negative as losers outnumbered gainers 317 to 238 with 340 counters unchanged, 1,103 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 907.03 million shares worth RM429.19 million.
Being the only three plantation heavyweights listed on the FBM KLCI, Sime Darby added three sen to RM4.75, IOI Corp ticked up one sen to RM4.26, while KLK was unchanged at RM21.60.
Tenaga dropped eight sen to RM13.78 and Petronas Chemicals slipped one sen to RM7.44.
Index-wise, the FMB Palm Oil increased 8.66 points to 11,503.55 and sectoral Plantation Index improved 5.99 points to 6,606.46.
BAT was the top loser, erasing 40 sen to RM18.98 while top gainer was Syarikat Takaful, putting on 34 sen to RM6.54.
Of the most actively traded counters, Velesto climbed 1.5 sen to 36 sen while its warrant added one sen to 15.5 sen, Green Packet warrant perked one sen to 34 sen, KNM edged up half-a-sen to 46 sen and Vsolar was flat at 5.5 sen.
The FBM 70 weakened 69.41 points to 13,994.08, the FBMT 100 Index fell 23.89 points to 10,969.86 and the FBM Ace shed 4.90 points to 4,853.22.
The FBM Emas Index reduced 23.73 points to 11,160.01 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 21.71 points lower at 11,789.93.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 5.35 points to 15,175.41 but the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.16 point easier at 153.08. — Bernama
