Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia remained in negative territory by mid-afternoon due to continued profit-taking, particularly in heavyweight counters within the financial services and utilities sectors. At 3 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) registered a decline of 6.90 points, settling at 1,681.22 compared to the previous day's close of 1,688.12. The index had initially opened higher, gaining 3.30 points at 1,691.42.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, despite the decline in the benchmark index, market breadth was positive with 567 gainers outpacing 447 losers. Additionally, 500 counters remained unchanged, while 1,215 were untraded and 13 were suspended. The turnover reached 2.37 billion units valued at RM1.70 billion.
In terms of heavyweight stocks, Maybank's shares remained steady at RM11.04. However, Public Bank, CIMB, and IHH Healthcare saw slight declines, each slipping four sen to RM4.60, RM7.51, and RM8.71, respectively. Tenaga Nasional experienced a more significant drop, falling 18 sen to RM14.14.
On the most active list, ACE Market-debutant 5E Resources and V.S Industry both increased by one sen to 27 sen and 19.5 sen, respectively, while MMAG decreased by half a sen to 3.5 sen. Zetrix AI rose by 2.5 sen to 79.5 sen, and AirAsia X increased by five sen to RM1.24.
Among the top gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries surged RM1.32 to RM31.96, Dutch Lady increased by 40 sen to RM32.20, Hong Leong Industries added 30 sen to RM17.04, Fraser and Neave climbed 24 sen to RM30.04, and Malayan Cement increased by 23 sen to RM6.83.
Conversely, apart from Tenaga Nasional, other top losers included Petronas Gas, which decreased by 40 sen to RM17.86. Petronas Chemicals also saw a reduction of 27 sen to RM5.63, PPB Group dropped 22 sen to RM11.58, and MISC fell by 18 sen to RM8.18.
On the index board, the FBM Mid 70 Index advanced by 107.72 points to 17,483.98, and the FBM ACE Index saw a rise of 28.13 points to 4,495.84. However, the FBM Top 100 Index decreased by 18.94 points to 12,232.95, the FBM Emas Index fell by 12.88 points to 12,393.37, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased slightly by 0.84 of a point to 12,311.75.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased by 35.01 points to 19,637.86. The Industrial Products and Services Index edged down by 0.81 of a point to 186.84, the Plantation Index saw a decline of 49.58 points to 8,891.20, and the Energy Index reduced by 3.40 points to 820.13.