KLCI pares losses headed into lunch break

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained in the red as it entered the lunch break, although it had pared losses from earlier in the day amid the ongoing consolidation.

At 12.30pm, the key index was down 3.64 points to lie flat against a psychological support of 1,550, as investors remained cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later this week.

A slew of policy meetings by global central banks are keeping investors on edge this week as they seek out more clarity on the interest rate environment.

On Bursa, investors were seen taking profit from plantations stocks, alongside the utilities, telcos, healthcare and transport/logistics sectors.

Among the leading laggards, Tenaga Nasional slid 10 sen to RM11.50, PETRONAS Gas fell 24 sen to RM17.54 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong dropped eight sen to RM21.94.

CelcomDigi, meanwhile lost 11 sen to RM4.27 while Genting fell five sen to RM4.93.

Notable performers during the morning session included Apollo Foods, which surged to an all-time high of RM6.84 after putting on RM1.07, following a strong earnings results in the recent quarter.

Sunway soared 18 sen to RM3.28, extending its rally for a third day following a bullish report by Hong Leong Investment Bank Research.

Meanwhile, YTL Power saw some price volatility following the announcement of the YTL AI Cloud.

The share traded on both sides of its reference price of RM3.92, within a range of RM3.82 to RM4.07 on high volume of 38.32 million shares.

As at the lunch break, the share was up two sen to RM3.94.

Regionally, China’s stocks fell despite optimistic data on its factory output as worries over the property sector took centrestage.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.4% to 3,074, while the blue-chip CSI300 fell 0.3% to 3,593.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dove 1.1% to 16,545.

In Japan, the Nikkei was up 0.2% to 39,818 following the Bank of Japan’s decision to end its negative interest rate policy to bring lending costs up to zero.