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Bursa Malaysia Ends Morning Session Lower

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower as most traders remained on the sidelines ahead of the United States (US) Federal Reserve’s potential rate cut.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 6.59 points to 1,657.69 from Tuesday's close of 1,664.28. 

The benchmark index opened 0.05 of-a-point higher at 1,664.33 and moved between 1,655.08 and 1,664.78 throughout the morning trading session.

Decliners led gainers 523 to 326, with 422 counters unchanged, 1,234 untraded and nine suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.41 billion units worth RM1.46 billion. 

Hong Leong Investment Bank said that ahead of the key central banks’ policy meetings this week, the FBM KLCI could trade range-bound due to the lack of meaningful local rerating catalysts. 

Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank and Hong Leong Bank rose two sen each to RM10.68 and RM21.22, respectively, IHH Healthcare advanced five sen to RM7.10, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.69, CIMB fell three sen to RM8.33 and TNB slid six sen to RM14.76. 

As for the active counters, MyEG grew two sen to 95 sen, Cape EMS edged up one sen to 36 sen, Tanco put on two sen to RM1.20, Jentayu Sustainables bagged 3.5 sen to 75.5 sen and OCR was flat at six sen. 

As for the glove counters, both Top Glove and Hartalega trimmed 10 sen to RM1.04 and RM3.04, respectively, Supermax gave up three sen to 90 sen, Kossan dipped 17 sen to RM2.08, and Careplus was lower by two sen to 28.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shaved 49.85 points to 12,372.02, the FBM Emas Shariah Index tumbled 53.67 points to 12,220.27, the FBMT 100 Index narrowed by 52.16 points to 12,085.33, the FBM 70 Index slipped 91.03 points to 17,488.78 and the FBM ACE Index eased 27.88 points to 5,074.43.  

By sector, the Financial Services Index ticked down 3.55 points to 19,637.4, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.11 points to 175.8, the Energy Index fell 9.51 points to 860.21 and the Plantation Index notched down 62.05 points to 7,151.8. 

-- BERNAMA