Bursa Malaysia Lower At Midday Amid Mixed Regional Performance
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower, weighed down by persistent selling amid mixed performance from regional peers, tracking the selloff in Wall Street.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 10.56 points or 0.66 per cent to 1,580.47, from Friday’s close of 1,591.03.
The benchmark index opened 4.64 points easier at 1,586.39.
On the broader market, decliners trumped gainers 633 to 181, with 407 counters unchanged, 1,132 untraded and 10 suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.26 billion shares worth RM738.99 billion.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said Wall Street ended negatively as the services purchasing managers' index (PMI) data came in worse-than-anticipated.
It said traders will monitor United States’ consumer confidence, preliminary gross domestic product quarter-on-quarter, unemployment claims and monthly core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index this week.
"We see trading opportunities in industrial products and services, as well as glove counters.
"Despite the recent sell-off, we remain optimistic on its outlook, supported by healthy restocking activities and the additional tariffs on Chinese glove manufacturers, which would shift the market dynamics towards Malaysian glove manufacturers," it said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB added two sen each to RM10.52 and RM8.38, respectively.
Public Bank slipped two sen to RM4.48 and Tenaga Nasional declined 22 sen to RM13.76, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM7.26.
Among the active stocks, Ingenieur Gudang and Harvest Miracle Capital were flat at five sen and 13 sen, respectively, while RGB International and MY E.G. Services declined two sen to 42.5 sen and RM1.02, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 102.47 points to 11,889.19, the FBMT 100 Index shed 96.70 points to 11,628.53, the FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 144.27 points to 11,572.64, the FBM 70 Index dipped 218.27 points to 17,186.59 and the FBM ACE Index gave up 62.40 points to 4,858.58.
By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 4.15 points to 160.90, the Energy Index lost 12.60 points to 773.16, and the Financial Services Index trimmed 21.04 points to 19,296.99, while the Plantation Index improved 36.26 points to 7,494.58.
-- BERNAMA