KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia turned lower as at mid-morning today, as profit-taking in selected plantation and finance counters emerged amid cautious sentiment in the regional markets, dealers said.
At 11 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 4.13 points to 1,490.90 from Friday’s close of 1,495.03.The market bellwether opened 0.22 point weaker at 1,494.81.
Market breadth turned negative with losers leading gainers 367 to 292, while 387 counters were unchanged, 1,156 untraded, and 28 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.44 billion units worth RM614.48 million.
In a note today, Kenanga Research said the FBM KLCI – which is currently hovering not far away from its recent high of 1,503 end-December – remained vulnerable to further downside risk this week.
“The FBM KLCI could slide towards our immediate support threshold of 1,475 points while our first resistance barrier blocking the benchmark index’s further advancement is seen at 1,510 points,” it said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank shed 3.0 sen to RM8.83, Public Bank fell 1.0 sen to RM4.32, CIMB trimmed 4.0 sen to RM5.74, TNB declined 9.0 sen to RM9.39, and Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.40.
As for the actives, Wellspire Holdings surged 19.5 sen to 42.5 sen, Sapura Energy added half-a-sen to 5.0 sen, Serba Dinamik eased half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, and Eduspec was flat at 1.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 14.22 points to 10,771.58, the FBMT 100 Index shaved 16.44 points to 10,466.13, and the FBM ACE Index slipped 5.53 points to 5,449.95, but the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 7.81 points to 10,984.53 and the FBM 70 Index rose 33.17 points to 13,413.84.
Sector-wise, the Transportation and Logistics Index reduced 1.80 points to 923.44 and the Financial Services Index dipped 75.38 points to 16,545.77, while the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.55 point to 185.84, the Energy Index improved by 2.14 points to 825.08, and the Plantation Index gained 2.85 points to 6,925.76.-BERNAMA