KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower in sync with regional bourses on Wednesday (Dec 28), which took their cue from not-so-rosy Wall Street leads.
Losses can be seen across almost all sectors, resulting in the benchmark FBM KLCI losing 7.05 points to 1,467.64, compared with Tuesday’s closing at 1,474.69.
The market bellwether opened 1.14 points lower at 1,473.55, and moved between 1,466.30 and 1,477.50 throughout the morning session.
Market breadth remained weak, as losers outpaced gainers 503 to 296, while 365 counters were unchanged, 1,105 untraded, and 25 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.55 billion units worth RM891.28 million.
A trader said global sentiments remained murky, as investors were in cautious mode in the last trading week of 2022, due to persistent concerns over the economic and interest rates outlooks for 2023.
Back home, the trader said profit-taking activities can be seen in plantation and energy counters after Tuesday’s steady rally, while banking counters retracted from their mild gains on Wednesday morning amid selling pressure.
Overall, the KLCI is anticipated to trend around the 1,465-1,480 levels on Wednesday.
Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) lost five sen to RM8.59 a share and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd reduced by five sen to RM5.60, while MISC Bhd was 10 sen weaker at RM7.25, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) lost seven sen to RM9.17, and Hong Leong Bank Bhd shrank 18 sen to RM20.28.
Of the actives, Top Glove Corp Bhd shed 2.5 sen to 90 sen, while Berjaya Corp Bhd was unchanged at 29.5 sen, and Vinvest Capital Holdings Bhd gained half a sen to 19.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index eased 55.08 points to 10,555.80, the FBMT 100 Index went down 53.53 points to 10,268.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 55.82 points to 10,789.60, the FBM 70 Index slid 86.03 points to 13,009.85, and the FBM ACE Index shaved 57.94 points to 5,295.71.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shrank 108.21 points to 16.246.16, the Plantation Index gave up 9.61 points to 6,978.82, and the Energy Index was 4.20 points lower at 783.75, while the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.18 of a point to 180.45. -BERNAMA