KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in the negative territory at midday due to profit-taking in selected heavyweights, led by Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals.

Both counters dragged the composite index down by a combined 7.46 points.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI contracted by 14.90 points to 1,483.06 from yesterday's close of 1,497.96.

The benchmark index opened 0.56 points lower at 1,497.40.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 440 to 277, while 387 counters were unchanged, 1,237 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.38 billion units worth RM817.18 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said despite global developments, selling pressure from large institutions had weighed on the FBM KLCI.

“The decline in the FBM KLCI is mainly due to profit taking as resistance is very strong. Investors are cautious and still in the wait-and-see condition, but there might be some buying later today,” he told Bernama.

As such, Thong expects the FBM KLCI to trend sideways today, hovering within the 1,480-1,490 range.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.95, Public Bank reduced eight sen to RM4.54, Petronas Chemicals shed 16 sen to RM8.73, CIMB slid five sen to RM5.42 and IHH Healthcare trimmed two sen to RM6.19.

Of the actives, CSH Alliance and Impiana Hotels eased half-a-sen to four sen and two sen, respectively, and Metronic Global was flat at three sen, while Cypark Resources added 6.5 sen to 41.5 sen and MY E.G Services gained three sen to 88.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 80.31 points to 10,575.28, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 82.64 points to 10,316.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 47.58 points to 10,675.37, the FBM 70 lost 18.42 points to 12,825.55 and the FBM ACE was 23.73 points lower at 4,870.46.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 19.32 points to 6,958.10, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.59 points to 183.59 and the Financial Services Index dropped 202.29 points to 16,683.53, while the Energy Index bagged 4.79 points to 721.25. ― Bernama