KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — Bursa Malaysia ended the Friday morning trading session slightly lower amid market volatility, tracking the weak performance on Wall Street overnight, an analyst said.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined by 2.06 points to 1,465.07 from Thursday’s closing of 1,467.13.
The barometer index opened 5.37 points lower at 1,461.76 and moved between 1,459.31 and 1,467.79 during the session.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 507 to 260, while 392 counters were unchanged, 1,115 untraded, and 48 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.84 billion units worth RM801.31 million.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were mostly on the back foot today, mirroring a weakness on Wall Street overnight following hawkish central bank commentary.
“The hawkish tone from major central banks seems to have caught the market by surprise as investors had been betting on peak inflation and a slowing of policy tightening going into 2023.
“Traders are likely to be leaning towards defensive exposure with some volatility expected in the markets,” he told Bernama.
Among Bursa Malaysia heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank and TNB all lost one sen to RM8.69, RM4.37 and RM9.20 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals was unchanged at RM8.46, and CIMB rose three sen to RM5.78.
Of the actives, both Borneo Oil and Key Alliance were flat at 2.5 sen and 1.5 sen respectively, Advance Synergy gained two sen to 21 sen, Malayan United ticked up half-a-sen to nine sen, and DNeX fell 2.5 sen to 49.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 18.45 points to 10,532.45, the FBMT 100 Index shed 14.60 points to 10,236.31, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 25.75 points weaker at 10,644.03, the FBM 70 Index shaved off 19.06 points to 12,903.61, and the FBM ACE Index dipped 40.31 points to 5,431.28.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 12.56 points lower at 16,522.94, the Plantation Index improved 75.80 points to 6,780.21, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.25 of-a-point to 180.77, and the Energy Index gave up 6.11 points to 788.49. — Bernama
