KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at mid-morning, as weak regional sentiment continued to weigh on investors’ risk appetite.
At 11.03am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 3.46 points to 1.439.2 from yesterday’s close of 1,442.66.
On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 462 to 209, while 395 counters were unchanged, 1,291 untraded, and nine suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.55 billion units worth RM530.44 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the local front overall market conditions may weaken, translating into a broad-based selldown in view of Wall Street’s negative tone overnight and worsening geopolitical tension in the Middle East.
“Technology stocks may be the focus today as sentiment was negative with Tesla’s weaker results.
“We think the energy sector could trade higher on the back of firmer crude oil prices,” it said.
Tesla stock tumbled yesterday following a sharp drop in profits in the third quarter.
Among the Bursa heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM8.95, Petronas Chemicals fell 21 sen to RM7.27, Tenaga lost 11 sen to RM9.87 and IHH Healthcare trimmed two sen to RM5.93.
Public Bank added one sen to RM4.13 while CIMB was flat at RM5.58.
Of the actives, PUC inched up half-a-sen to five sen, Asdion put on 1.5 sen to 9.5 sen, Saudee was flat at three sen, while Bina Puri shed half-a-sen to 6.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 25.21 points lower at 10,616.23, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 23.33 points to 10,290.95, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 36.52 points to 10,873.04, the FBM 70 Index fell 25.63 points to 13,989.87 and the FBM ACE Index slid 11.2 points to 5,094.7.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 1.77 points to 173.11, the Financial Services Index lost 12.77 points to 16,128.52, while the Plantation Index erased 20.66 points to 6,917.64.
The Energy Index, however, gained 9.44 points to 884.13. ― Bernama
