Kuala Lumpur:Bursa Malaysia remained lower in mid-afternoon trading due to ongoing selling pressure on selected heavyweight counters. Despite this, analysts suggested that a rally on Wall Street could potentially influence the local market positively, although the index is expected to stay range-bound.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, late-session bargain hunting might offer some support to the index, along with Malaysia's advance estimate of third-quarter GDP, which indicated a 5.3 percent economic expansion.
At 3 pm, the FBM KLCI dropped 13.28 points to 1,610.42 from Thursday's closing at 1,623.70, despite an opening increase of 1.13 points at 1,624.83. In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 527 to 448. A total of 471 counters were unchanged, with 1,397 untraded and 33 suspended. The market turnover stood at 2.18 billion units worth RM1.72 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell nine sen to RM9.99, while Public Bank gained 10 sen to RM4.84. CIMB decreased by 19 sen to RM7.29, Tenaga Nasional added six sen to RM13.04, and IHH Healthcare slipped one sen to RM7.97.
In active trades, Zetrix AI and Ni Hsin each declined by half a sen to six sen and 42 sen, respectively, EGH International dropped 2.5 sen to 13.5 sen, and Top Glove remained steady at 90 sen. V.S Industry rose by 1.5 sen to 34.5 sen.
Petronas Dagangan was among the top gainers, increasing by 34 sen to RM19.54. KESM and Vitrox each went up by 30 sen to RM4.81 and RM10.62, respectively, and Pekat surged by 23 sen to RM2.76.
Conversely, Nestle led the losers, dropping 72 sen to RM89.78, while Press Metal decreased by 71 sen to RM6.46. Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell by 64 sen to RM20.46, and Dutch Lady declined by 38 sen to RM28.90.
On the indices, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 61.38 points to 12,012.14, the FBM Top 100 Index fell by 69.39 points to 11,806.47, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down by 75.98 points to 11,926.56. The FBM ACE Index rose by 104.90 points to 5,415.80, and the FBM Mid 70 Index increased by 15.68 points to 17,255.42.
In terms of sector performance, the Energy Index edged down 0.31 of a point to 822.56, the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 4.02 points to 172.90, the Plantation Index dropped 139.0 points to 8,704.87, and the Financial Services Index weakened by 30.62 points to 18,796.02.