KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session mixed, as emerging mild profit-taking in selected plantation and healthcare counters capped further gains in the benchmark index, dealers said.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up 1.41 points to 1,582.78 from Tuesday’s close of 1,581.37.
The benchmark index opened 1.55 points better at 1,582.92 and moved between 1,579.08 and 1,584.95 throughout the session.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 472 to 357, while 469 counters were unchanged, 855 untraded, and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.72 billion units worth RM1.51 billion.
ActivTrades trader Anderson said that Asian equities slipped today after Wall Street pulled back from record highs while risk appetite was subdued as investor focus remained on the looming United States’ Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting later on Wednesday.
“China is also set to announce a slew of data. Traders will be watching closely for signs of slower growth in retail sales in May due to the high base from last year.
“As for industrial production data, strength likely continued in May but at a slower pace than the previous month. Traders will be paying attention to see how the change will be affected by several factors, including a high base, chip factories running at full capacity and more robust construction activity,” he said in a research note today.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped 1.0 sen to RM8.19, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM4.21 and RM8.10, respectively, while TNB and CIMB Group added 1.0 sen each to RM9.95 and RM4.63, respectively.
Of the actives, KNM was flat at 20.5 sen, DNeX eased half-a-sen to 88.5 sen, Berjaya Corp fell 2.5 sen to 31 sen while Serba Dinamik declined 1.0 sen to 67 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 0.93 of-a-point to 11,568.78 and the FBMT 100 Index advanced 4.25 points to 11,251.40, but the FBM ACE shed 17.28 points to 7,687.64.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 16.82 points to 12,728.57 while the FBM 70 went down 16.52 points to 15,059.64.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index bagged 13.44 points to 15,324.91, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.55 of-a-point to 193.77 and the Plantation Index dipped 60.82 points to 6,617.14. — Bernama
