Profit-taking accelerates on Bursa

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia succumbed to profit-taking pressure as it reopened after the New Year break, in line with a slump in China's markets.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 6.77 points to 1,447.89 with the broader market recording 476 decliners compared to 374 gainers.

Trading volume was 2.64 billion share valued at RM946.61mil.

The blue-chip index was weighed down by bank counters including Hong Leong Bank falling 22 sen to RM18.68, Public Bank dropping three sen to RM4.26 and RHB shedding three sen to RM5.42.

PETRONAS Chemicals slid four sen to RM7.12, IHH declined six sen to RM5.97, Maxis dropped six sen to RM3.79 and Sime Darby Plantation fell eight sen to RM4.38.

Notable gainers on the market included Sungei Bagan Rubber Co up 90 sen to RM4.15 and Kuchai Development gaining 37 sen to RM1.62 on news of the latter's injection of assets and liabilities into the former.

Meanwhile, top actives included Fast Energy up six sen to 19 sen, Metronic rising one sen to 2.5 sen and BSL Corp up 0.5 sen to five sen.

In regional markets, China's composite index was down 0.2% to 2,968 following mixed factory data for December.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, dove 1.45% to 16,800, after having wrapped 2023 as one of the world's worst-performing stock markets.

South Korea's Kospi was up 0.2% to 2,659 while Japan's stock market remained closed.