Bursa Malaysia ends morning session marginally lower

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session marginally lower.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 1.89 points to 1,613.29 from Thursday's close of 1,615.18.

The index opened 1.19 points lower at 1,613.99 and fluctuated between 1,610.65 and 1,614.58 during the session.

In the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 569 to 307, while 518 counters were unchanged, 1,129 untraded, and 52 others suspended. 

Total turnover amounted to 2.35 billion units valued at RM1.24 billion.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that as selling pressure in the United States stock markets eases, bargain-hunting activities may emerge at the local front.

"Traders may look for buy-on-dip opportunities within the data centre theme for the near term. We expect traders to reassess the situation within the technology sector after this correction phase

"We favour the construction, property, utilities, and building materials segments. Additionally, we also favour stocks within the shipping, financial, and water-related sectors," it said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank fell 2.0 sen to RM4.19, Tenaga Nasional declined 6.0 sen to RM13.94, and CIMB Group decreased 2.0 sen to RM7.17, while Maybank and IHH Healthcare stayed flat each to RM10.14 and RM6.26.

Among the actives, Kucingko surged 28.5 sen to 58.5 sen, Alam Maritim gained half-a-sen to 4.0 sen, and OCR Group added 1.0 sen to 11 sen. Meanwhile Cape EMS decreased 14.0 sen to 74 sen and Widad Group  was unchanged at 5.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 9.30 points to 12,456.48, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 7.06 points to 12,045.58, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 4.31 points to 12,735.39, while the FBM ACE Index plummeted 69.19 points to 5,741.67.

Meanwhile, the FBM 70 Index gained 14.93 points to 18,493.28.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index added 28.71 points to 7,179.67, the Industrial Products and Services Index went up 0.35 of-a-point to 192.14, and the Energy Index increased 4.04 points to 962.33, while the Financial Services Index eased 33.36 points to 17,949.90.

-- BERNAMA