KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-morning on continued profit-taking on selected financial services counters.
At 11.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 7.99 points to 1,487.06 from yesterday’s close of 1,495.05.
The benchmark index opened 6.47 points weaker at 1,488.58.
On the broader market, decliners surpassed advancers 356 to 248, while 355 counters were unchanged, 1,276 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover stood at 675.43 million units worth RM361.19 million.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were defensive on Wednesday as the US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan initially hit risk assets and supported safe havens.
“Equity traders will be keeping an eye on any trade disruption that could affect US and Chinese companies as a result of geopolitical tensions,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM8.82, Public Bank lost seven sen to RM4.59, CIMB slid four sen to RM5.21, while Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM8.87 and IHH Healthcare gained six sen to RM6.48.
Of the actives, Borneo Oil, MQ Technology and Dagang Nexchange were all flat at 2.5 sen, 4.0 sen and 79.5 sen, respectively, while MYEG decreased one sen to 76.5 sen and SMTrack was half-a-sen weaker at 5.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 43.96 points to 10,538.54, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 22.04 points to 10,675.11, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 44.83 points to 10,291.85, the FBM ACE slipped 26.29 points to 4,770.29, and the FBM 70 shed 12.58 points to 12,581.92.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index reduced by 4.33 points to 7,023.72 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 0.32 of a point to 184.12, the Energy Index dipped 0.47 of a point to 658.12 and the Financial Services Index lost 122.01 points to 16,529.27. ― Bernama
