Bursa Malaysia remains in the red at mid-morning

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 20): Market sentiment remained soft at mid-morning, resulting in the key index easing by 0.09%, weighed down by banking counters.

At 11.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) trimmed 1.40 points to 1,528.93 from Wednesday's (Jan 19) close of 1,530.33.

On the scoreboard, gainers slightly outpaced losers 373 to 334, while 379 counters were unchanged, 1,164 untraded and 27 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.52 billion units worth RM727.42 million.

Among Bursa Malaysia’s heavyweights, CIMB trimmed 13 sen to RM5.20, Maybank shed three sen to RM8.29, Mr D.I.Y slipped four sen to RM3.64, while Top Glove and Petronas Chemicals were two sen easier at RM2.22 and RM8.96, respectively.

IHH Healthcare rose two sen to RM6.58, TNB advanced four sen to RM9.11, Press Metal jumped 18 sen to RM6.06 and Public Bank was flat at RM4.18.

As for the actives, MMAG edged up half-a-sen to 8.5 sen, ACE market debutant Coraza surged 40.5 sen to 68.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange advanced 2.5 sen to 93.5 sen, Sapura Energy was flat at five sen and Ageson declined one sen to 2.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 27.99 points to 11,697.08, the FBM 70 bagged 13.87 points to 13,502.66 and the FBM ACE improved 70.75 points to 6,162.31, while the FBMT 100 Index gave up 5.15 points to 10,680.53 and the FBM Emas Index contracted 2.72 points to 10,971.90.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased 3.40 points to 6,666.58, the Industrial Products and Services Index reduced 1.03 points to 199.91, and the Financial Services Index weakened by 276.94 points to 15,814.22.