KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session Tuesday marginally lower as profit-taking continued to dominate the market.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 0.09 of-a-point to 1,620.83, with the energy, telecommunication and logistic sectors leading the downtrend.

The index opened 2.88 points higher at 1,623.80 versus Monday’s close of 1,620.92, and moved between 1,619.18 and 1,625.52 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 731 to 379, while 393 counters were unchanged, 712 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total volume stood at 6.93 billion units valued at RM3.46 billion.

Most of the sectors were in the red except for plantation, construction and healthcare, an analyst said.

He said the lead from Asian stocks were mixed, despite a positive cue from overnight Wall Street.

In addition, the crude oil market was lower following concerns over energy demand prospects amid Covid-19 and a stronger dollar.

At press time, the Brent and West Texas Intermediate Crude were lower at US$68.19 and US$64.75 per barrels, respectively.

Among heavyweights, Axiata, Public Bank and Sime Darby Plantation lost two sen to RM3.74, RM4.30 and RM4.88, respectively.

HLFG dipped 36 sen to RM17.60 and Genting Malaysia reduced seven sen to RM3.11.

TNB gained 12 sen to RM10.78, while MISC added five sen each to RM6.91.

Market debutant Teladan Setia increased 9.5 sen to 57.5 sen, Widad inched up 3.5 sen to 71.5 sen, and Komarkcorp was 2.5 sen better at 37 sen.

Dagang Nexchange declined half-a-sen to 97 sen and BCM was 6.5 sen lower at 24.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 10.38 points to 11,874.43, the FBMT 100 was 2.72 points weaker at 11,558.58, and the FBM Emas Shariah recovered 4.23 points to 13,133.86.

The FBM 70 fell 11.28 points to 15,612.71 and the FBM ACE slipped 33.71 points to 10,592.43.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 20.62 points to 15,625.36, the Plantation Index firmed 63.73 points to 7,219.62, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.01 points to 191.43. — Bernama