KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session lower amidst the bearish sentiment in the local market, dealers said.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 11.06 points to 1,544.27 from Friday’s closing of 1,555.33.
The index, which opened 1.53 points lower at 1,553.80, moved between 1,542.63 and 1,555.31 throughout the session.
On the broader market, decliners surpassed gainers 499 to 270, while 393 counters were unchanged, 1,090 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.36 billion units valued at RM941.97 million.
In a research note today, Rakuten Trade expects the market undertone to remain cautious and the key index to trend within the 1,550-1,560 range today.
“As the United States 10 — year bond yield is heading towards 1.8 per cent again, we reckon that the market volatility within the region would heighten,” it added.
At midday, Bursa heavyweights Public Bank added one sen to RM4.21, TNB was flat at RM9.04, Maybank declined six sen to RM8.40, Petronas Chemicals shed 11 sen to RM8.98, IHH Healthcare eased one sen to RM6.57 and CIMB fell three sen to RM5.51.
Of the actives, Kanger International edged up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, Iconic Worldwide rose 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen, Widad Group and MQ Technology were flat at 37.5 sen and eight sen, respectively, while SMTrack shed 2.5 sen to 26.5 sen and AirAsia went down two sen to 60 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 59.81 points weaker at 11,118.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 71.01 points to 11,809.80, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 61.37 points to 10,824.28, the FBM ACE trimmed 14.0 points to 6,265.63, and the FBM 70 went down 8.17 points to 13,844.40.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index contracted 81.52 points to 16,070.56, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 1.20 points to 201.76, while the Plantation Index lost 107.59 points to 6,653.96. — Bernama
