KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed the morning session of the first trading day on a lower note, weighed down by continued profit-taking in selected heavyweights amid a lack of fresh catalysts.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 11.36 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 1,668.75 from Wednesday’s close of 1,680.11.
The benchmark index opened 4.91 points lower at 1,675.20, and hit its day’s low of 1,667.20 in the late morning the session.
The market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 516 to 348, while 475 counters were unchanged, 1,316 untraded and 18 suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.04 billion units valued at RM758.02 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd in a note said the FBM KLCI might experience some profit-taking today after the recent year-end rally, however, it continued to favour banking stocks due to attractive dividends.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank dropped six sen to RM10.42, CIMB lost 15 sen to RM8.10, Public Bank fell four sen to RM4.50, Tenaga Nasional rose six sen to RM13.78, and IHH Healthcare slid 14 sen to RM8.61.
On the most active list, Zetrix slipped half-a-sen to 80.5 sen, Tanco gained two sen to RM1.18, Pharmaniaga
eased half-a-sen to 28 sen, and Avangaad was flat at 32 sen.
Among the top gainers, Petronas Gas put on 16 sen to RM18.30, Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM22.28, while Malayan Cement and Dutch Lady advanced 12 sen each to to RM7.78 and RM31.12, respectively.
Of the top decliners, MPI erased 86 sen to RM31.38, PPB gave up 40 sen to RM10.66, F&N shaved 50 sen to RM35.0, Hong Leong Industries tumbled 32 sen to RM16.46, and Telekom Malaysia slid 15 sen to RM7.90.
On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index fell 52.82 points to 12,250.85, the FBM Top 100 Index declined 54.39 points to 12,053.02, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 37.83 points to 12,058.46.
The FBM Mid 70 Index garnered 48.40 points to 16,851.79 and the FBM ACE Index notched up 4.84 points to 4,877.79.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 116.54 points to 19,586.81, the Energy Index improved 4.44 points to 771.75, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.35 points to 172.27, and the Plantation Index dipped 49.12 points to 8,275.77. - Bernama
