KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session in the red on renewed concerns over the Covid-19 Omicron variant-led restrictions while the bearish Wall Street performance overnight continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 1.85 points to 1,499.94 compared with 1,501.79 at yesterday’s close.

The market bellwether opened 0.14 of-a-point lower at 1,501.65 and moved between 1,499.38 and 1,505.41 throughout the session.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 454 to 261, while 412 counters were unchanged, 1.178 untraded, and 52 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.21 billion units valued at RM708.46 million.

In the latest development, more countries worldwide have imposed a stricter movement restrictions to curb the spread of the new variant.

In addition, ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said investors are awaiting major macro events next week such as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and other major central bank policy decisions.

“November's US inflation will also be closely scrutinised but is unlikely to change expectations that the Federal Reserve will accelerate the tapering at Wednesday's meeting to give it a rate hike optionality early next year,” he said.

Global markets are also cautious after China's property giant Evergrande has officially been labelled a defaulter for its US dollar bonds.

On the local bourse, heavyweights CIMB and Press Metal trimmed five sen to RM5.19 and RM5.47 respectively.

Sime Darby Plantation slipped seven sen to RM3.78, Digi was six sen lower at RM4.06 and Axiata lost four sen to RM3.80.

However, Tenaga Nasional jumped 15 sen to RM9.26 and MISC gained nine sen to RM6.61.

Of the actives, Malaysian Genomics gave up nine sen to 73 sen, while Kanger International, Sapura Energy and Widad were all unchanged at two sen, five sen and 38 sen respectively.

ATA IMS and Fintec Global rose half-a-sen each to 51 sen and 1.5 sen respectively, while Supermax erased four sen to RM1.46.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 24.58 points to 10,927.25, the FBMT 100 Index inched down 19.22 points to 10,635.36, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 26.45 points to 11,814.94.

The FBM 70 fell 49.84 points to 14,125.64 and the FBM ACE slid 59.50 points to 6,222.58.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 0.59 of-a-point to 193.74, the Financial Services Index declined 15.18 points to 15,149.95, while the Plantation Index lost 12.05 points to 6,482.95. ― Bernama