Bursa Malaysia ends morning session lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower as investors sold consumer products as well as industrial products and services shares.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down by 7.04 points, or 0.48 per cent to 1,540.59 from Tuesday’s close of 1,547.99.

The benchmark index opened 0.70 points lower at 1,547.29 and moved between 1,539.21 and 1,548.42 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 523 to 400, with 460 counters unchanged, 911 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 2.59 billion units worth RM1.22 billion.

The local bourse was tracking Wall Street’s performance after the three major US stock indices fell about 1 per cent on Tuesday.

Maybank Investment Bank, in a note, said technically, it expects the FBM KLCI index to range between 1,530 and 1,550 today, with support levels at 1,525 and 1,508.

Petronas Dagangan fell 38 sen to RM21.90 among heavyweight stocks, Hong Leong Bank was 24 sen lower at RM19.32 and Tenaga eased 14 sen to RM11.30. CIMB slid 8.0 sen to RM6.58, and Hong Leong Financial Group dropped 18 sen to RM16.72.

Among the actives, Zen Tech added half-a-sen to 2.0 sen, SNS rose 7.0 sen to 40 sen, SCBuild gave up half-a-sen to 1.0 sen and SMTrack was flat at 4.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 37.00 points lower at 11,603.46, the FBMT 100 Index slid 38.22 points to 11,242.70 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 10.45 points to 4,937.35.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 17.07 points to 11,716.88 while the FBM 70 Index ticked up 9.42 points to 16,238.06.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 139.03 points to 17,221.40 and the Plantation Index was 8.19 points easier at 7,302.46. The Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.10 point to 179.94, and the Energy Index added 5.28 points to 962.20. – BK