Bursa investors stay guarded on US rate hike worries

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian stock market remained downbeat at midday as investors remained cautious ahead of the US central bank meeting next week that will determine the path of future interest rate hikes.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 2.59 points to 1,452.45, weighed down mostly by a sharp decline in PETRONAS Chemicals.

There were 538 decliners comapred to 232 gainers.

Trading volume was 1.73 billion shares valued at RM935.74mil.

PETRONAS Chemicals fell 27 sen to RM6.96, single-handedly erasing more than three points off the stock index.

Meanwhile, Public Bank dipped two sne to RM4.22, PETRONAS Gas fell four sen to RM17.12 and Maxis slipped two sen to RM4.12.

Among the morning's gainers, Kuala Lumpur Kepong rose 18 sen to RM21.38 and PPB added 14 sen to RM15.74.

Top actives included Ekovest down two sen to 50 sen, IFCAMSC up two sen to 33 sen and UEM Sunrise dropped two sen to 68.5 sen.

In regiona markets, China's composite index was little changed at 3,144 as was Hong Kong's Hang Seng at 18,098.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.8% to 32,726 and South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.5% to 2,543.