KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark stock index was little changed at the lunch break after clawing back losses made earlier in the day.
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At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 0.12 points to 1,387.21.
There were 471 decliners compared to 241 gainers on Bursa Malaysia. Trading volume was 1.68 billion shares valued at RM824.1mil.
Investor attention has been on the rollout of China’s measures to stimulate economic growth, the latest being a rate cut that some observers say is not enough to revive confidence in the weakening economy.
China’s markets remained subdued on the news despite retracing slightly from the day’s lows.
The mainland market’s composite index fell 0.2% to 3,249 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.5% to 19,609.
Japan’s Nikkei meanwhile was down 0.4% to 33,247 and South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.1% to 2,605.
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On Bursa Malaysia, investors have adopted a wait-and-see attitude although sentiment remains weak ahead of the country’s own imending state elections.
CIMB was the most improved among the blue chips, rising seven sen to RM5.15.
Among the worst losers of the previous session, Press Metal extended its fall by five sen to RM4.69 while Maxis shed three sen to RM4.11.
On the broader market, Pertama Digital dove 31 sen to RM2.89, F&N shed 24 sen to RM25.08 and Chin Hin slid 17 sen to RM4.53.
Top actives were SCIB up one sen to 43 sen, YTL down six sen to 90.5 sen and tanco gaining 0.5 sen to 51 sen.
Top Glove, which announced disappointing earnings yesterday, fell a further four sen to 87.5 sen.
– The Star