KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 ― Bursa Malaysia extended its downtrend to close the morning trading session on a weak note, amidst continuous selling in the index-linked counters and the lack of market catalysts to boost risk appetites, dealers said.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 10.82 points to 1,538.23 from yesterday's closing of 1,549.05.
The index, which opened 1.87 points firmer at 1,550.92, moved between 1,536.64 and 1,551.33 throughout the session.
On the broader market, losers slightly outnumbered gainers 402 to 398, while 367 counters were unchanged, 1,106 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.79 billion units worth RM897.74 million.
A dealer said profit taking activities reemerged as investors returned from their long holidays, while the better Purchasing Managers’ Index, which rose to 52.8 in December 2021 from 52.3 in November, failed to spur interest in the market.
“They (the investors) are mostly cautious about the near-term outlook, especially ahead of the key policy rate meeting by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the United States (US) Federal Reserve, therefore (they decided to) book some profit,” he told Bernama.
BNM’s first Monetary Policy Committee for 2022 will be held on Jan 19-20, and the first US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting for the year will be on Jan 25-26.
Meanwhile, market heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank, and IHH Healthcare slipped one sen each to RM8.32, RM4.14 and RM6.86, respectively, CIMB fell seven sen to RM5.42 and Tenaga eased three sen to RM9.20.
Conversely, Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM8.77.
Of the actives, Bintai trimmed 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, SMTrack gained two sen to 25.5 sen, Key Alliance and XOX were flat at 1.5 sen and three sen, respectively, and ATA earned 3.5 sen to 64 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 49.79 points weaker at 11,172.6, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 78.33 points to 12,018.01, the FBMT 100 Index declined 51.72 points to 10,866.08 and the FBM ACE decreased 22.54 points to 6,522.73.
In contrast, the FBM 70 bagged 38.77 points to 14,264.62.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index contracted 53.84 points to 6,606.54, the Financial Services Index gave up 14.78 points for 15,599.29 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.48 of-a-point to 200.91. ― Bernama
