Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia remained subdued at midday as investors engaged in profit-taking, particularly in plantation and healthcare sectors. At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 3.49 points, or 0.21 percent, to 1,631.34, compared to Tuesday's close of 1,634.83.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the benchmark index opened stronger by 1.91 points at 1,636.74, fluctuating between 1,630.19 and 1,641.27 throughout the morning session. Market breadth was negative, with 583 decliners against 367 advancers, while 514 counters remained unchanged, 1,255 were untraded, and 10 were suspended. The total turnover stood at 2.17 billion shares valued at RM1.18 billion.
Thong Pak Leng, vice-president of equity research at Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd, noted that Wall Street's mixed performance was due to traders reallocating funds from tech stocks to those with lower valuations. He added that locally, the index is expected to hover between 1,630 and 1,640, bolstered by a stronger ringgit against the US dollar.
Among key heavyweights, Maybank remained flat at RM9.91, Public Bank dropped one sen to RM4.29, CIMB decreased by 11 sen to RM7.54, and IHH Healthcare fell by five sen to RM8.25, while Tenaga Nasional gained four sen to RM13.42. On the most actively traded list, MMAG and Farmiera dipped half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and 24.5 sen, respectively. Tanco rose by one sen to 94 sen, while Perak Transit and TWL remained unchanged at 27.5 sen and 2.5 sen, respectively.
In terms of top gainers, Nestle climbed RM1 to RM113.0, Fraser and Neave increased by 82 sen to RM31.02, United Plantations rose by 24 sen to RM26.04, PJBumi went up by 20 sen to RM1.78, and Westports also gained 20 sen to RM1.78. Conversely, Malaysian Pacific saw a decrease of 62 sen to RM30.78, Petronas Dagangan lost 22 sen to RM22.70, Batu Kawan fell by 20 sen to RM19.0, and Chin Teck Plantations decreased by 16 sen to RM10.70.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index fell by 13.0 points to 11,859.36, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 16.52 points to 12,097.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened by 4.92 points to 12,127.91, and the FBM ACE Index declined by 32.14 points to 5,043.58. Meanwhile, the FBM Mid 70 Index rose by 35.49 points to 16,921.22. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index decreased by 12.41 points to 8,163.99, the Financial Services Index dropped by 52.69 points to 18,391.20, and the Industrial Products and Services Index fell by 0.18 of-a-point to 168.10, while the Energy Index increased by 0.40 of a point to 759.74.