BURSA MALAYSIA END MORNING SESSION LOWER

KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session lower today, weighed down by continuous selling in selected heavyweights amidst the lack of new catalysts.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 8.57 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 1,574.94 from Wednesday’s close of 1,583.51.

The benchmark index opened 0.76 of-a-point easier at 1,582.75, subsequently moving between 1,574.13 and 1,586.85 throughout the session.

The broader market was negative with 513 decliners surpassing 396 gainers, while 471 counters were unchanged, 1,014 untraded and seven suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.40 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said sentiment in Asian equities has shifted decisively from risk-on chasing to cautious profit-taking after Wall Street’s lukewarm performance overnight.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM10.14, Public Bank lost two sen to RM4.51, Tenaga Nasional erased 18 sen to RM14.12 and CIMB declined four sen to RM7.20, while IHH Healthcare rose one sen to RM7.07.

In active trade, SFP Tech gained 1.5 sen to 25 sen and Ekovest was three sen higher at 38 sen, while Sapura Energy and Harvest Miracle were flat at 4.5 sen and 18 sen, respectively, and Nationgate decreased two sen to RM1.75.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 37.97 points to 11,798.36, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 45.96 points to 11,541.15, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 29.62 points to 11,741.43.

The FBM 70 Index eased by 0.30 of-a-point to 16,872.61 and the FBM ACE Index depreciated 11.56 points to 4,779.44.

Across sectors, the Financial Services Index shed 80.32 points to 18,492.47, the Industrial Products and Services Index was down 0.43 of-a-point to 160.46, the Energy Index erased 1.33 points to 742.03, and the Plantation Index slid 8.27 points to 7,349.13.

-- BERNAMA