Bursa Malaysia Lower At Midday, Selected Selling In Financial And Utility Heavyweights

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- 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 per cent, to 1,584.13 versus 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 lunch break.

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 said 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.

“However, with crude palm oil prices recovering, we expect plantation stocks to regain upward momentum and the construction sector to continue benefiting from data centre construction, Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone initiatives, as well as 2024’s last quarter earnings to be released this month.

“Lastly, we remain positive on the Genting-related counters despite their removal from the MSCI index, given their attractive valuations and dividend yields,” it said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank shaved eight sen to RM10.48, CIMB fell five sen to RM8.30, Public Bank eased two sen to RM4.47 and IHH Healthcare decreased one sen to RM7.26. Tenaga Nasional increased two sen to RM13.92.

Ace Market debutant Richtech Digital led the active counters, gaining 9.5 sen to 34.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang and Harvest Miracle were half-a-sen higher at 5.5 sen and 15.5 sen, respectively.

In contrast, Dialog Group erased one sen to RM1.56 and Aizo Group went down 1.5 sen to 10 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 56.80 points to 12,049.81, the FBMT 100 Index was 55.79 points lower at 11,758.16, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index reduced 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 edged up 0.21 of-a-point to 164.20.

The Financial Services Index slipped 97.86 points to 19,244.78, while the Energy Index increased 0.93 of-a-point to 799.48.

-- BERNAMA