KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia pared earlier gains to end the morning session slightly in the red as selling outpaced buying on a lack of catalysts, especially with US markets closing on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 1.65 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,602.60, from Wednesday's close of 1,604.25. The index opened 2.07 points higher at 1,606.32 and moved between 1,601.19 and 1,608.01 throughout the session.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 543 to 329 while 451 counters were unchanged, 1,146 untraded and 89 suspended. Turnover totalled 1.47 billion units, valued at RM1.31 billion.
US President-elect Donald Trump's imminent tariff moves, coupled with the latest US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index data for October, which came in as expected, led regional bourses to adopt a cautious stance, analysts said. In addition, some markets saw muted interest as US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The US core PCE increased 2.8 per cent in October, which may affect the Fed's next interest rate decision as inflation remained sticky.
Despite these worries, gains from blue chips helped the FBM KLCI to remain above the 1,600 level.
Heavyweight Petronas Chemicals led the decliners, dropping nine sen to RM4.64 while RHB Bank lost 10 sen to RM6.68 and CIMB eased four sen to RM8.33. Hong Leong Bank slid 16 sen to RM20.64.
In contrast, plantation counter KLK continued to recover, climbing 36 sen to RM20.86 while Nestlé gained RM1.08 to RM96.08 and YTL Power rose four sen to RM3.46, helping to stem the FBM KLCI's decline.
Among the active stocks, Genetec Technology added four sen to RM1.21, Nationgate fell 26 sen to RM2.09 and Notion Vtec gained four sen to RM1.24. Microlink Solutions slipped 2.5 sen to 9.0 sen and JCY International was half-a-sen lower at 40 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 13.04 points to 12,177.93, the FBMT 100 Index fell 11.51 points to 11,876.04 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 1.72 points to 12,110.70. The FBM 70 Index lost 14.69 points to 17,904.22 and the FBM ACE Index gave up 30.35 points to 5,148.39.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 54.25 points to 19,182.59, the Energy Index slipped 6.37 points to 812.32, and the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 1.07 points to 170.62.
The Plantation Index gained 35.33 points to 7,516.63.