KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Bursa Malaysia stayed in the red at mid-morning, as investors fled finance index-linked counters following Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on the targeted moratorium extension yesterday.
At 11.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.25 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 1,602.17 from 1,611.42 at yesterday's close.
The key index opened 2.60 points higher at 1,614.02 at 9 am.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 443 to 387, while 434 counters were unchanged, 733 untraded and 64 others suspended.
Trading volume stood at 5.04 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion.
Of the heavyweights, five out of six banking stocks listed on the FBM KLCI were in the negative territory in the morning trading, except for Hong Leong Bank which was unchanged at RM15.00.
Maybank and CIMB fell three sen each to RM7.72 and RM3.57 respectively, Public Bank gave up 28 sen to RM17.26, RHB Bank slipped one sen to RM4.99 and Hong Leong Financial was two sen easier at RM13.62.
Of the most actives, Lambo added one sen to five sen, BCM perked 3.5 sen to 32.5 sen, XOX weakened one sen to 24.5 sen, Borneo Oil was half-a-sen lower at four sen while Priceworth International was flat at three sen.
Top gainers included Ajinomoto which advanced 50 sen to RM15.50, MPI elevated 40 sen to RM13.10 and Sam Engineering and Equipment was 31 sen higher at RM7.52.
Meanwhile, the top loser was Nestle, giving up RM1.60 to RM410.40 while top gainer Mega First climbed 28 sen to RM6.74.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index reduced 40.39 points to 11,428.90, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 34.68 points lower at 13,430.67 and the FBMT 100 Index shrank 45.09 points to 11,262.89.
The FBM 70 lifted 19.97 points to 14,585.31 and the FBM ACE was 87.52 points higher at 8,611.39.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index saw the biggest fall of 85.22 points to 13,251.28, the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 0.96 of-a-point to 141.46 but the Plantation Index gained 2.34 points to 7,142.75. — Bernama
