Bursa Malaysia Remains Lower At Midday Amid Selling Pressure
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia remained lower at midday, weighed down by continued selling pressure in most heavyweight counters in line with weaker regional performance amid surging oil prices due to ongoing US-Iran tensions.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI FBM KLCI declined 17.18 points, or 1.00 per cent, to 1,688.34 from Thursday’s close of 1,705.52.
The benchmark index, which opened 0.23 points lower at 1,705.29, moved between 1,687.44 and 1,705.69 during the morning session.
Market breadth was negative, with losers beating gainers 744 to 336. A total of 417 counters were unchanged, 1,334 untraded and 32 suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.22 billion shares worth RM1.58 billion.
Apex Securities Bhd said it remained cautious on near-term global risk appetite, with surging oil prices, rising US Treasury yields and an increasingly hawkish rate outlook creating a fragile backdrop.
The stockbroking firm said investors are heading into a pivotal inflation reading and next week’s US Federal Reserve (Fed) policy decision amid heightened uncertainty.
“As for the KLCI, we expect sentiment to remain cautious in the near term, as elevated crude prices continue to raise cost pressures across the broader market, with investors awaiting greater clarity on the West Asia conflict and the US interest-rate outlook,” it said in a note today.
At the time of writing, Brent crude oil rose 0.31 per cent to US$107.93 per barrel.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank decreased two sen to RM10.44, Public Bank eased six sen to RM4.79, CIMB dropped 10 sen to RM7.82, Tenaga slid 12 sen to RM13.60, and IHH Healthcare slipped 29 sen to RM7.60.
Actively traded stocks included Top Glove, which added four sen to 80.5 sen, Zetrix AI advanced half a sen to 25.5 sen, while Luster Industries and Supermax were flat, each at 3.5 sen and 43 sen, respectively, while Hartalega rose eight sen to RM1.19.
The top gainers were led by Petronas Chemicals, which ticked up 24 sen to RM5.06, Henyuan Refining bagged 13 sen to RM3.52, Eurospan rose 10 sen to RM3.07, Kerjaya Prospek and Hibiscus Petroleum strengthened eight sen each to RM3.60 and RM2.35, respectively.
The top losers included Allianz Malaysia, which fell 40 sen to RM21.28, Sunway Construction gave up 33 sen to RM7.58, Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 32 sen to RM22.42, Hong Leong Bank reduced 30 sen to RM23.30, and Vitrox declined 27 sen to RM9.20.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 114.41 points to 12,524.74, the FBM Top 100 Index slid 118.92 points to 12,319.31 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 105.56 points to 12,397.14.
The FBM Mid 70 Index erased 143.90 points to 17,756.70, and the FBM ACE Index fell 59.24 points to 5,253.20.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index retreated 203.14 points to 19,700.96, and the Plantation Index trimmed 9.84 points to 9,439.27.
The Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.03 of-a-point to 188.85, while the Energy Index strengthened 5.69 points to 825.13.
-- BERNAMA