KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed negative at mid-morning today, as weak global sentiment curbed interest for equities, dealers said.
At 11.00 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 8.00 points to 1,689.50 from Monday’s close of 1,697.50.
The index opened 2.79 points weaker at 1,694.71.
Losers led gainers 336 to 229, while 299 counters were unchanged, 1,061 untraded and 102 others suspended.
Turnover was at 858.98 million shares worth RM482.52 million.
Maybank IB Research said a weaker overnight performance in US market may deter investors’ sentiment along with the short trading week.
Meanwhile, a dealer said news that the US Justice Department has filed a host of criminal charges against Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou which could ratchet up tensions between China and the US, and impact the firm’s global expansion drive.
“This would also cause a ripple effect on the local stocks and other emerging markets,” he told Bernma.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and and CIMB added one sen each to RM9.67 and RM5.67 respectively, Public Bank eased two sen to RM24.80, Tenaga lost six sen to RM13.52 and Petronas Chemicals was down 16 sen to RM8.46.
Of the most active, Sapura Energy slipped 1.5 sen to 27 sen, Eduspec recovered half-a-sen to 2.5 sen and Bumi Armada was flat 21.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index declined 47.76 points to 11,706.48, the FBMT 100 Index shed 47.52 points to 11,592.58 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 79.04 points to 11,605.44.
The FBM Ace Index fell 9.36 points to 4,383.73, the FBM 70 slid 26.34 points to 13,900.66.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 4.90 points to 17,613.53, the Plantation Index decreased 57.50 points to 7,255.39 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.46 points lower at 161.59. – Bernama
