KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark FBM KLCI slipped into the red in the morning session, on course to ending the day at its lowest close of the week.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down 6.85 points to 1,364.88, largely shrugging off the rally that was seen in global markets following optimism that US policymakers was hitting the pause button on rate hikes.
However, Malaysian investors remained subdued with foreign selling pressure keeping the index caught within a range-bound trading channel.
On the broader market there were 375 decliners compared to 331 gainers. Trading volume was 1.71 billion shares valued at RM817.73mil.
Most blue chips on the local bourse were lower, including banks, plantations and telcos. Public Bank dropped four sen to RM3.81, Maxis shed six sen to RM4.05 and PETRONAS Gas fell 22 sen to RM16.78.
Pertama Digital dropped 21 sen to RM3.06, Heineken dropped 20 sen to RM26.90 and Mercury Industries dove 12 sen to 97 sen
Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.15% to 33,533 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5% to 2,620.
China’s composite index was up 0.4% to 3,265 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.7% to 19.974.
– The Star