KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 1): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session lower on continued selling activities in selected heavyweights, echoing the weaker sentiment in regional markets, dealers said.
At the lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI had declined 8.81 points to 1,528.99 from Thursday’s close at 1,537.80.
The index, which opened 1.31 points lower at 1,536.49, moved between 1,526.48 and 1,539.47 throughout the morning session.
Market breadth remained negative with losers trumping gainers 636 to 248, while 378 counters were unchanged, 982 untraded and seven others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.03 billion units worth RM1.25 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said concerns over rising rates and inflation — which pushed US equities broadly lower as selling increased in the trading session last night — could also see regional markets, including the KLCI, being under pressure on Friday.
“Trading on the local bourse had been rather volatile of late as the weak market undertone saw the KLCI failing to break the 1,550 level.
“Volatility from external factors could be one of the reasons for the weak showing by the local bourse as well. For Friday, we anticipate the index to trend around the 1,535-1,545 range,” it said in a research note.
Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) was flat at RM8.05, Public Bank Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) slipped two sen each to RM4.05, RM8.68 and RM9.66 respectively, while IHH Healthcare Bhd went down a sen to RM6.69.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy Bhd eased half a sen to 11 sen, KNM Group Bhd slipped 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd fell one sen to 31 sen and Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) decreased 2.5 sen to 75.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 56.86 points to 11,254.22, the FBMT 100 Index was 58.7 points easier at 10,939.15 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 66.37 points to 12,292.64.
The FBM 70 declined 64.16 points to 14,916.60 and the FBM ACE contracted 82.09 points to 7,076.81.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index added 20.84 points to 6,349.18, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.91 of a point to 203.32, and the Financial Services Index shed 53.25 points to 15,154.10. -BERNAMA -The Edge Markets