KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 —  Bursa Malaysia retreated from its earlier gains to end in the red 13 minutes before the closing of the morning session after shares belonging to Top Glove, the world’s largest gloves manufacturer succumbed to selling pressure.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) decreased 2.28 points to 1,583.28 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,585.56.

The market had opened 2.24 points lower at 1,583.32.

Market breadth was negative with losers surpassed gainers 512 to 359, while 436 counters were unchanged, 657 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 6.66 billion units worth RM2.95 billion.

The market performance was also in line with some of the regional markets with Hap Seng Index dropping 1.17 per cent to 25,183.08, SSE Composite Index losing 1.41 per cent 3,314.03, while the Straits Times Index was 0.54 per cent lower at 2,634.62.

Latest news showed China’s economy grew 3.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, the first major economy to show a recovery from the damage caused by the Covid-19.

In the first of quarter 2020, its economy contracted by 6.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, China’s industrial production, a gauge of manufacturing, mining and utilities, increased by 4.8 per cent in June from a 4.4 per cent rise in May and retail sales dropped by 1.8 per cent, better than the 2.8 per cent decline in May.

On the domestic front, heavyweights — Top Glove was 56 sen weaker at RM21.24, IHH went down seven sen to RM5.36 and Maybank declined three sen to RM7.88.

Hartalega went up 34 sen to RM15.94, PetChem inched up seven sent to RM6.25 and Hap Seng rose 13 sen to RM8.76.

Of the most actives, Netx was flat at one sen, XOX edged up one sen to 11 sen, and Pegasus appreciated half-a-sen to 2.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 16.07 points to 11,168.58, the FBMT 100 Index edged down 14.05 points to 11,022.90 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 19.45 points lower at 12,787.97.

The FBM 70 went down 10.39 points to 13,852.56 and the FBM ACE appreciated 60.88 points to 7,297.14.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 26.35 points to 13,507.86, the Plantation Index inched up 10.93 points to 6,973.28 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.45 of-a-point better to 138.22. — Bernama