BURSA MALAYSIA ENDS IN THE RED AT LUNCH BREAK

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session in the negative territory following a choppy trading session, continuing a downtrend that has persisted for six consecutive days, despite mild bargain-hunting activities earlier in the day.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.98 points to 1,587.68 from Monday's close of 1,589.66.

The benchmark index opened 0.05 of-a-point better at 1,589.71, and moved between 1,587.37 and 1,594.71 throughout the session. 

On the broader market, decliners trounced advancers 692 to 330, while 420 counters were unchanged, 976 untraded, and 16 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.12 billion units worth RM1.71 billion.

Stockbroking firm Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that although bargain-hunting activities are expected to ensue, the overall market conditions are still affected by profit-taking in the technology stocks in the United States, namely Nvidia.

“Nevertheless, we opine that the sentiment on the local front will improve, catalysed by the rising demand for data centres, artificial intelligence and cloud services, which may eventually translate to positive trading activities.

“We also like the solar, construction and building materials sectors, given the rising construction activities in the data centre front, while the shipping industry may benefit from the Red Sea incident earlier,” it said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB perked two sen to RM9.90 and RM6.70, respectively, TNB was 28 sen higher at RM14.0 and IHH ticked up one sen to RM6.31, while Public Bank reduced two sen to RM4.01. 

As for the actives, Ingenieur Gudang, Velesto and Siab Holdings were half-a-sen better at 7.0 sen, 25.5 sen and 13 sen, respectively, and YGL Convergence garnered 3.5 sen to 22 sen, while McClean was down by half-a-sen to 40.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved by 4.03 points to 12,549.17 and the FBM 70 Index rose 13.97 points to 17,730.4, while the FBM Emas Index decreased by 15.58 points to 12,178.46, the FBMT 100 Index declined 7.71 points to 11,763.91 and the FBM ACE Index fell 39.71 points to 5,674.30.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 24.55 points to 17,378.96, the Energy Index notched up 3.75 points to 955.89, and the Plantation Index edged up 11.91 points to 7,036.43, while the Industrial Products and Services Index reduced 1.95 points to 196.50. 

-- BERNAMA