BURSA LOWER AT MIDDAY, CI DOWN 0.93 PCT ON US TENSION

KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory at midday, pressured by continued selling in financial services and healthcare stocks, amid tensions between United States President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 13.93 points, or 0.93 per cent, to 1,485.54 from Monday’s close of 1,499.47.

CIMB slipped 11 sen to RM6.75, Public Bank declined five sen to RM4.35, and IHH Healthcare fell eight sen to RM6.81. The three counters collectively dragged the benchmark index down by 4.87 points.

The index opened 7.03 points lower at 1,492.44 and moved between 1,482.70 and 1,492.44 during the session.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners leading gainers 575 to 166. Another 332 counters were unchanged, 1,352 untraded and 30 suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.03 billion shares worth RM843.63 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said Wall Street’s overnight performance remained under pressure as the conflict between Trump and Powell raised concerns about the US central bank’s independence, especially amid persistent uncertainty in trade policy.

“With little progress towards de-escalating the trade war, we expect Trump’s policies to continue painting an uncertain picture across global markets, putting further pressure on the greenback.

“Wall Street is likely to trade lower in response to these concerns,” it said.

The firm said investors will be watching for the S&P Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for April 2025, as well as weekly US unemployment claims.

Back home, the firm sees opportunities to accumulate positions in the glove sector, expecting higher order flows over the medium term, as Malaysian glove manufacturers become more cost-competitive following the imposition of US tariffs on China.

“In addition to stable earnings and high dividend yields, we anticipate momentum in banking stocks.

“However, given the ongoing trade war and a wait-and-see approach by businesses, traders may shift focus to the domestically driven consumer sector and safe-haven asset proxies to better weather economic uncertainty,” it added.

Among other heavyweights, YTL Power International and Press Metal Aluminium lost eight sen each to RM3.18 and RM4.72 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional dropped ten sen to RM13.38. Maxis and Sime Darby Plantation firmed two sen each to RM3.51 and RM4.66 respectively.

As for actives, NexG added 1.5 sen to 36 sen, Aumas inched up half-a-sen to 78.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang and Magma slipped half-a-sen each to 3.5 sen and 36.5 sen. Bina Puri was flat at 34.5 sen.

On the broader index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 104.55 points to 10,990.84, the FBMT 100 Index fell 105.30 points to 10,780.41, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 97.01 points to 10,788.06, the FBM 70 Index gave up 166.77 points to 15,341.47, and the FBM ACE Index erased 52.18 points to 4,514.02.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 155.37 points to 17,853.78, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.69 points to 142.34, the Energy Index slipped 8.26 points to 651.75, and the Plantation Index fell 36.38 points to 7,174.75.

-- BERNAMA