KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session marginally lower after experiencing choppy trading due to conflicting market sentiments.

 At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 0.69 of-a-point to 1,597.04 from yesterday’s close of 1,597.73 points.

The index opened 1.01 points better at 1,598.74 and moved between 1,593.24 and 1,599.69 throughout the session.

On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers at 553 versus 373, while 417 counters were unchanged, 889 untraded and 45 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.47 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion.

Rakuten Trade said the United States’ equities are currently at a crossroads, teetering between economic recovery and the loss of stimulus, thus continued market volatility can be expected.

"Though we can expect regional markets to experience some volatility, we noticed some foreign funds trickling into Asia.

"There had also been some accumulation from foreign funds yesterday, hence most will close firmer today,” it said.

The research house also noted that the FBM KLCI may see ongoing consolidation and hover within a tight range of 1,595-1,605 today as investors monitor the developments on the local political scene over the weekend.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.24, PBBank gained two sen to RM4.19, PChem reduced eight sen to 7.97 and IHH was seven sen easier at RM5.34.

As for the active counters, Matang added 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen, Widad improved five sen to 55 sen, Komark advanced 4.5 sen to 36 sen, DNex lost half-a-sen to 95.5 sen while its warrant was 1.5 sen better at 35.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 5.23 points to 11,741.58, the FBMT 100 inched up 0.09 of-a-point to 11,409.70, the FBM ACE jumped 100.64 points to 10,463.48 and the FBM 70 rose 19.49 points to 15,492.36.

Conversely, the FBM Emas Shariah fell 1.14 points to 13,040.46.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 10.67 points to 15,258.66, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.01 of-a-point to 191.48 and the Plantation Index increased 24.85 points to 7,107.20. — Bernama