CONTINUED SELLING PUSHES BURSA MALAYSIA LOWER AT MIDDAY

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 (Bernama) -- Continued selling activities in selected heavyweights, mainly the financial counters, have pushed Bursa Malaysia lower at midday today, despite regional peers gaining momentum.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 8.74 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 1,639.57  from Tuesday’s close of 1,648.31.

The index had opened 2.99 points lower at 1,645.32, and moved between 1,639.13 and 1,646.66 during the session.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners beating gainers 436 to 393, while 510 counters were unchanged, 1,437 untraded, and 12 suspended.

Turnover reached 1.38 billion units valued at RM932.11 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the benchmark index continued on a weaker footing amid a lack of fresh leads, tracking Wall Street’s lower sentiment.

“However, we believe ongoing window dressing activities may limit the downside risk,” the brokerage firm said in a note today.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell eight sen to RM10.28, Public Bank slipped five sen to RM4.42, CIMB dipped seven sen to RM7.91, IHH Healthcare lost 19 sen to RM8.53, while Tenaga Nasional rose four sen to RM13.18.

On the most active list, Velesto and V.S Industry gained half a sen each to 28 sen and 49 sen, respectively. Tanco grew one sen to RM1.16, while Zetrix AI inched down one sen to 80 sen, and Top Glove remained unchanged at 63.5 sen.

Top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which climbed 50 sen to RM32, Hong Leong Industries increased 22 sen to RM15.90, UMS Integrated gained 17 sen to RM4.35, and UWC and Fraser and Neave both added 10 sen each to RM4.07 and RM35.58, respectively.

Besides IHH Healthcare, among the top losers were Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which lost 34 sen to RM19.46, Allianz Malaysia and United Plantations fell 14 sen each to RM19.98 and RM28.80, respectively, and Westports erased 13 sen to RM5.61.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 47.81 points to 12,051.39, the FBMT Top 100 Index dropped 53.62 points to 11,847.21, the FBM Mid 70 Index decreased 32.46 points to 16,586.14, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 22.81 points to 11,887.69, while the FBM ACE Index edged up 3.38 points to 4,740.80.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index inched up 2.29 points to 762.35, while the Plantation Index slid 16.75 points to 8,163.28, the Financial Services Index narrowed 134.77 points to 19,181.30, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.11 of a point to 169.38.

-- BERNAMA