Kuala Lumpur: Bursa Malaysia was weighed down by continuous selling in selected heavyweights at midday, led by the financial services and utilities sectors. At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.47 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,584.13 from last Friday's close of 1,591.60. The benchmark index opened 0.88 of-a-point higher at 1,592.48, its intraday high but slid to a low of 1,583.69 before the lunch break.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, in the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 663 to 265, while 404 counters were unchanged, 976 untraded and 10 suspended. Turnover amounted to 1.84 billion units worth RM962.06 million. Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd noted that market sentiment remains weak on the local front, driven by foreign institutional outflows and recent strong sell-offs across certain counters including CelcomDigi Bhd, Able Global Bhd, Notion VTec Bhd, and YBS International Bhd.
The report highlighted expectations for plantation stocks to regain momentum with recovering crude palm oil prices and anticipated benefits for the construction sector from data center construction, Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone initiatives, and the upcoming release of 2024's last quarter earnings. Despite their removal from the MSCI index, Genting-related counters remain positive due to their valuations and dividend yields.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank decreased by eight sen to RM10.48, CIMB by five sen to RM8.30, Public Bank by two sen to RM4.47, and IHH Healthcare by one sen to RM7.26. However, Tenaga Nasional increased by two sen to RM13.92. Ace Market debutant Richtech Digital led the active counters with a gain of 9.5 sen to 34.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang and Harvest Miracle were each up half-a-sen.
On the other hand, Dialog Group and Aizo Group experienced declines, with Dialog Group dropping by one sen to RM1.56 and Aizo Group down by 1.5 sen to 10 sen. Index-wide, the FBM Emas Index lost 56.80 points to 12,049.81, the FBMT 100 Index fell 55.79 points to 11,758.16, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased by 46.64 points to 11,800.87. The FBM 70 Index dropped 85.65 points to 17,785.58, and the FBM ACE Index shed 24.16 points to 5,110.62.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was down 38.56 points at 7,416.36, but the Industrial Products and Services Index slightly increased by 0.21 of-a-point to 164.20. The Financial Services Index slipped 97.86 points to 19,244.78, while the Energy Index rose by 0.93 of-a-point to 799.48.