BURSA MALAYSIA LOWER AT MIDDAY ON SUBDUED SENTIMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower, weighed down by profit-taking amid a lack of fresh catalysts, tracking softer Wall Street performance overnight in a subdued market mood.   

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.65 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 1,676.34 from Monday’s close of 1,680.99.

The barometer index, which opened 3.33 points lower at 1,677.66, moved between 1,673.87 and 1,679.56 throughout the session.

In the broader market, decliners beat gainers 453 to 335, while 516 counters were unchanged, 1,419 untraded, and 78 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 848.82 million units valued at RM662.94 million.

Public Investment Bank Bhd in a note said the FBM KLCI might trend weaker today after US stocks slipped in quiet trading on Wall Street to kick off another holiday-shortened week.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell four sen to RM10.40, CIMB eased three sen to RM8.20, Tenaga Nasional lost 12 sen to RM13.76, while Public Bank and IHH slipped one sen each to RM4.50 and RM8.55 respectively.

On the most active list, Tanco rose one sen to RM1.15, TWL and Mega Fortris were unchanged at 2.5 sen and 80 sen, respectively, while MQ Tech and Pharmaniaga both added one sen to nine sen and 30.5 sen, respectively.

Among the top gainers, MPI garnered 46 sen to RM32.96, Hong Leong Industries went up 40 sen to RM16.80, Dutch Lady rose 20 sen to RM31, while Country View and Bintulu Port gained 17 sen each to RM2.97 and RM5.48, respectively.

As for the top losers, Nestle dropped RM1.70 sen to RM114, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gave up 26 sen to RM19.82, F&N slipped 30 sen to RM35.70, MISC shed 16 sen to RM7.64, and Warisan TC lost 14 sen to 72 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 15.77 points to 12,289.12, the FBMT Top 100 Index declined 14.77 points to 12,094.56, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 13.04 points to 12,100.88.

The FBM Mid 70 Index went up 64.15 points to 16,850.09 and the FBM ACE Index dipped 6.68 points to 4,868.10.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 19.86 points to 19,657.13, the Energy Index gained 0.32 of-a-point to 765.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.16 of-a-point to 173.76, and the Plantation Index tumbled 54.63 points to 8,267.49.

-- BERNAMA