KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished the morning trading session lower as worries over the global economic outlook weighed on Asian markets, dealers said.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 4.26 points to 1,455.81 from 1,460.07 at Thursday’s close.
The key index, which opened 0.53 of a point easier at 1,459.54, moved between 1,454.70 and 1,460.23 during the session.
The broader market was negative with decliners surpassing advancers 437 to 286, while 423 counters were unchanged, 1,177 untraded and seven others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.45 billion units worth RM893.84 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said he expects the index to hover within the 1,460-1,470 range today.
"Although we believe the sentiment would stay cautious in view of external factors, we remain positive that the accumulation of stocks would persist today,” he told Bernama.
Thong noted that Wall Street closed on a mixed note overnight as the sentiment remained affected by the likelihood that US interest rates will stay higher for longer after the United States posted strong labour market figures.
"In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index continued to slide as it lost almost 250 points in view of China’s weak exports in August.
"The Chinese yuan also declined to a 15-year low, from averaging 6.4 earlier this year to currently at 7.3 to the US dollar, or a drop of 18 per cent,” he said.
Back home, Maybank and Public Bank slipped 2.0 sen each to RM9.15 and RM4.23, respectively, while CIMB fell 5.0 sen to RM5.69.
Petronas Chemicals and Tenaga Nasional added 1.0 sen each to RM7.18 and RM9.88, respectively.
Of the actives, Classita declined 1.5 sen to 6.5 sen, JAKS Resources was flat at 21.5 sen and Widad Group added 1.0 sen to 47.5 sen while Ekovest gained 2.5 sen to 53 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 39.49 points to 10,735.31, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 37.38 points to 10,410.52 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 47.54 points to 10,902.50.
The FBM 70 Index dropped 80.14 points to 14,157.55 while the FBM ACE Index earned 0.39 of a point to 5,188.96.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.37 of a point to 172.75, the Plantation Index erased 25.97 points to 6,872.98 and the Financial Services Index reduced by 49.22 points to 16,422.98.
The Energy Index was 5.04 points easier at 859.45.
