KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session lower, amidst selling pressure in banking heavyweights and weak market sentiment.
At lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI erased 7.31 points to 1,584.66, after fluctuating between 1,572.62 and 1,589.57 throughout the session.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 957 to 272, while 624 counters were unchanged, 230 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Volume stood at 4.09 billion units worth RM2.85 billion.
A dealer said investors ignored the bullish overnight Wall Street performance as they were concerned about the possible lockdowns in certain states and the uncertainties in the local political scene.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank trimmed 15 sen to RM8.09, Public Bank fell 26 sen to RM20.08, Tenaga gave up 12 sen for RM10.30, Petronas Chemicals shed three sen to RM7.07, and IHH Healthcare eased five sen to RM5.50.
Conversely, Top Glove bagged seven sen to RM5.83.
Of the actives, AT Systematization inched up half-a-sen to 18 sen, Iris added 1.5 sen to 38.5 sen, Ageson was flat at 13 sen and Advance Synergy shed two sen to 16 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 78.88 points lower at 11,400.61, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 77.22 points to 11,146.58, the FBM 70 decreased 201.13 points to 14,462.3, the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 14.97 points to 12,833.44 and the FBM ACE lost 29.35 points to 10,535.93.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 2.05 points to 170.52, the Financial Services Index dropped 205.03 points to 14,765.34, while the Plantation Index gained 40.86 points to 7,388.03. – Bernama, January 7, 2021
