Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower, tracking the weakness in regional markets amid cautious global sentiment. At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 0.32 percent, or 5.28 points, to 1,626.99 from Thursday's close of 1,632.27. The benchmark opened 1.46 points weaker at 1,630.81 and fluctuated between 1,623.81 and 1,630.96 during the session.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, on the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 747 to 242, while 453 counters were unchanged, 1,296 remained untraded, and 10 were suspended. Turnover amounted to 2.43 billion units valued at RM1.25 billion. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng noted that the overnight Wall Street tumbled on continued selling of artificial intelligence-related stocks, with the situation further exacerbated by the diminishing possibility of a Federal Reserve rate cut in December.
Among heavyweights, Maybank remained flat at RM9.95, Public Bank fell two sen to RM4.28, CIMB lost one sen to RM7.56, and Tenaga Nasional shed six sen to RM13.44. However, IHH Healthcare saw an increase, rising four sen to RM8.29. On the most active list, Tanco decreased half-a-sen to 94 sen, Insights slid 8.5 sen to 92.5 sen, while Genting rose one sen to RM2.36. Both Perak Transit and TWL remained unchanged at 26.5 sen and 2.5 sen, respectively.
Top gainers included Dutch Lady, which rose RM1.10 to RM29.70, Malaysian Pacific Industries added 30 sen to RM30.90, Manulife gained 13 sen to RM2.26, Nestle, and United Plantations increased 10 sen each to RM113.10 and RM26.10, respectively. Among the top losers, Petronas Dagangan slipped 44 sen to RM22.0, Chin Teck Plantations fell 22 sen to RM10.52, while Kotra Industries, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, and PPB went down 20 sen to RM4.20, RM21.20, and RM11.60, respectively.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index slumped 36.29 points to 11,836.05, the FBM Emas Index declined 39.50 points to 12,070.02, the FBM Emas Shariah Index sank 54.22 points to 12,076.74, the FBM ACE Index tumbled 56.70 points to 5,015.90, and the FBM Mid 70 Index fell 42.68 points to 16,924.22. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index slipped 32.54 points to 8,123.31, the Financial Services Index dropped 26.39 points to 18,439.54, the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked down 1.71 points to 168.80, while the Energy Index eased 1.46 points to 755.35.