Bursa Malaysia Easier At Midday On Profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower as profit-taking activities emerged on selected blue chips amid a lack of fresh catalysts.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.93 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 1,672.17 from Friday’s close of 1,677.10

The barometer index, which opened 0.21 of a point better at 1,677.31, moved between 1,671.07 and 1,680.51 throughout the session.

In the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 574 to 267, while 530 counters were unchanged, 1,362 untraded, and 58 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.07 billion units valued at RM700.58 million.

Public Investment Bank Bhd in a note believed that with the remaining couple of days of trading this year, institutional investors were largely closed out of their positions.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank dropped four sen to RM10.36, Public Bank lost six sen to RM4.46, CIMB was flat at RM8.15, Tenaga Nasional rose two sen to RM13.68, and IHH fell four sen to RM8.55.

On the most active list, Pharmaniaga was unchanged at 30 sen, Tanco rose one sen to RM1.14, Insight Analytics increased 11 sen to RM1.06, and Zetrix went down half a sen to 81 sen.

Of the top gainers, Nestle rose RM1.50 sen to RM116.50, BLD Plantation put on RM1.46 to RM15.88, Dutch Lady expanded 52 sen to RM30.62, Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM22.56, and LSH inched up 10 sen to RM2.02.

Among the top losers, Allianz lost 14 sen to RM20.20, MISC slipped 23 sen to RM7.63, Malaysian Pacific dropped 12 sen to MR32.48, Ajinomoto eased 10 sen to RM13.66, and Kelington fell nine sen to RM5.17.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 28.48 points to 12,259.66, the FBMT Top 100 Index dropped 28.87 points to 12,061.80, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 16.68 points to 12,088.93.

The FBM ACE Index fell 11.03 points to 4,848.76, and the FBM Mid 70 Index shed 10.27 points to 16,792.30.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 77.35 points to 19,551.03, the Plantation Index shaved 5.54 points to 8,293.98, the Energy Index inched down 2.51 points to 763.26, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.02 of a point to 174.01. 

-- BERNAMA