KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Bursa Malaysia extended earlier downtrend to end the morning session easier amid mixed regional peers, dampened by weak market sentiment.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 0.98 of-a-point to 1,450.75 from 1,451.73 at yesterday's close.
The index, opened 1.8 points better at 1,453.53 this morning, hovered between 1,449.25 and 1,457.64 throughout the early session.
A dealer said the mixed performance by Asian stocks due to rising tensions between the United States and China has curbed optimism for global economic recovery after President Donald Trump promised “interesting” action against Beijing by the end of this week over its planned imposition of new security laws on Hong Kong.
The dealer said the announcement of a new stimulus package by the European Commission, which has forced some investors to take a step back from making any position, also partly contributed to the mixed performance in Asian bourses.
Back home, there were 621 losers and 283 gainers, while 328 counters were unchanged, 663 untraded and 57 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 3.72 billion units worth RM2.46 billion.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank slid two sen each to RM7.38 and RM15.22 respectively, while Tenaga lost eight sen to RM12.12.
Petronas Chemicals rose 22 sen to RM6.27, while IHH and Maxis gained two sen each to RM5.47 and RM5.33 respectively.
Of the most actives, Lambo and Sanichi inched up half-a-sen each to 2.5 sen and 9.5 sen respectively, Key Alliance and Comfort Gloves shed one sen each to 7.5 sen and RM3.07 respectively, while GD Express declined 5.5 sen to 39 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 6.32 points lower at 10,297.5, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 0.62 of-a-point to 10,149.77, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 5.55 points to 11,848.28, and the FBM ACE lost 85.91 points to 5,465.83.
However, the FBM 70 bagged 24.69 points to 12,962.15.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index fell 53.33 points to 6,754.35, the Financial Services Index trimmed 22.55 points to 12,327.78, but the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.37 points to 127.76. — Bernama
