KUALA LUMPUR: The local equities market failed to pick up positive momentum after Wall Street ended its session mixed and investors practised caution amid signs of slowing global growth.
Turnover on Bursa Malaysia remained tepid as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the G20 summit starting next week and expectations of a fourth US interest rate hike in December.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 1.81 points lower at 1,693.56. Trading volume was 947.16 million shares valued at RM538.62mil. Decliners outpaced advancers 429 to 230 and 325 counters were unchanged.
Despite the overall bearish sentiment, losses were offset with the indecision with most counters on the index showing slight declines.
Leading the morning decline, Sime Darby Plantation
dropped five sen to RM5.18 and Maybank fell three sen to RM9.37.
Among other heavyweight banks, CIMB slid three sen to RM5.83, Public Bank dipped two sen to RM24.80 and Hong Leong Bank lost four sen to RM20.54.
Other lagging stocks included MISC falling four sen to RM6.49 and Nestle shaving 60 sen to RM147.20.
Pos Malaysia was one of the leading decliners on the stock exchange with a 44 sen fall to RM2.76 as the postal service operator was hit by weak earnings announced yesterday.
On the advance, F&N grew 44 sen to RM33.44, Heineken added 10 sen to RM19.22 and D'nonce gained 10 sen to 73 sen.
Oil prices fell from rising US inventories although further losses were curbed by talk of supply cuts among OPEC members to prevent a recurrence of a global supply glut.
WTI crude fell 24 cents to US$54.39 a barrel while Brent crude slipped 26 cents a barrel to US$63.22 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was flat against the greenback at 4.1930. It rose 0.2% against the pound sterling at 5.3590 and was marginally higher against the Singapore dollar at 3.0527.
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