KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed lower at midday due to continued selling activities in selected heavyweights, especially those in the healthcare and industrial products and services sectors.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 6.43 points or 0.40 per cent to 1,602.54 from yesterday close of 1,608.97 after opening 5.78 points lower at 1,603.19.
The index moved between 1,598.93 and 1,603.88 during the morning trading session.
The market breadth was negative, with decliners surpassing advancers 560 to 337, while 495 counters were unchanged, 1,085 untraded and 21 suspended.
IHH Healthcare slid 33 sen to RM7.11, Sunway eased 18 sen to RM4.61 and Petronas Chemicals lost 9.0 sen to RM5.00. These counters pulled the composite index down by a combined 8.06 points.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd reiterates optimism towards the Construction and Building Materials sectors following the realisation of earnings from the establishment of data centre facilities, which started earlier this year.
Buying interest might also emerge in the data centre midstream industries under the Technology sector, such as IT solutions, cybersecurity, hard disk drives, electronic manufacturing services (EMS), and outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing, spurred by the completion of data centre facilities as well as the Google Cloud news yesterday.
Lastly, traders can also look for trading opportunities in glove counters, as strong momentum in share price persists, it said.
Among other heavyweights, Petronas Gas slid 16 sen to RM17.06, Hong Leong Bank decreased 24 sen to RM20.50 and Telekom Malaysia went down 10 sen to RM6.52, but Public Bank added 4.0 sen to RM4.56, and Tenaga Nasional gained 12 sen to RM13.80.
Of the active stocks, Dagang NeXchange rose 4.0 sen to 39.5 sen, SNS Network Technology perked up 1.5 sen to 58.5 sen, Skyworld Development strengthened 1.0 sen to 63.5 sen, MYEG inched down 1.0 sen to 92.5 sen, while Velesto Energy was flat at 15.5 sen.
On the broader market, the FBM 70 Index lost 56.13 points to 18,437.67, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 72.58 points to 12,283.99, the FBM ACE Index weakened by 8.76 points to 5,278.05, the FBM Emas Index erased 42.84 points to 12,297.21, and the FBMT 100 Index slipped 44.64 points to 11,978.67.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 1.49 points to 174.72, the Financial Services Index inched down 0.84 of-a-point to 19,101.60, the Energy Index edged down 0.98 of-a-point to 821.09 and the Plantation Index gave up 50.01 points to 7,675.15.
Meanwhile, trading in Axiata Group Bhd shares will resume with effect from 9.00 am, Thursday, Dec 12, 2024.