KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark index erased all its earlier gains by the lunch break, bucking an uptick in regional sentiment that saw major Asian indices rise off the week’s lows.
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At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.06 points to 1,416.99, as the rebound in bank stocks lost steam ahead of the extended Labour Day weekend.
The broader sentiment on Bursa Malaysia was also slightly negative with 378 declining stocks to 329 gainers. Trading volume was 1.64 billion shares crossing for a value of RM702.7mil.
Investors are on tenterhooks as they await the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next week following the conclusion of its two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday.
While most Malaysian banks remained slightly positive at the lunch break, the FBM KLCI’s largest weighted counter, Maybank, was down four sen to RM8.66.
IHH Healthcare also dragged on the market with a four sen drop to Rm5.74 while plantations play Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 36 sne to RM21.50.
PETRONAS Chemicals was the most improved, rising eight sen to RM7.12 while aluminium producer Press Metal added five sen to RM5.13.
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Nestle, which saw selling over the last two trading sessions following the release of its latest quarterly result, bounced back 20 sen to RM135.20.
Unisem rebounded eight sen to RM3, a day after announcing an 80% plunge in net profit in the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, active counters included Jade Marvel, unchanged at 28 sen, Vinvest rising one sen to 21 sen and Bintai Kinden shedding 0.5 sen to three sen.
In key Asian markets, equities prices were spurred on by the strong rally on Wall Street overnight as Big Tech earnings came in better than expected.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 1% to 28,732, South Korea’s Kospi was flat at 2,495, and China’s composite index was up 0.7% to 3,307.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.9% to 20,013 and Australia’s ASX200 added 0.1% to 7,300. – The Star