Bursa Malaysia Lower at Midday Driven by Heavy Selling in Banking Stocks

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 – Bursa Malaysia maintained a downward trend at midday on Tuesday, dragged lower by heavy selling in blue-chip heavyweights—particularly within the banking sector—in tandem with cautious regional sentiment and overnight Wall Street weakness.

At 12:30 PM, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 13.67 points to 1,656.35, down from Monday’s close of 1,670.02. After opening 5.91 points lower at 1,664.11, the key index fluctuated between 1,653.63 and 1,665.32 throughout the morning session.

Market breadth remained negative as decliners comfortably outpaced gainers 646 to 312, with 459 counters unchanged, 1,474 untraded, and 143 suspended. Midday turnover reached 1.83 billion shares valued at RM1.18 billion.

Major banking heavyweights led the decline across the broad market:

• CIMB dropped 18 sen to RM7.81.
• RHB Bank lost 16 sen to RM7.68.
• Maybank fell 8 sen to RM10.08.
• AMMB reduced 5 sen to RM6.55.
• Public Bank eased 4 sen to RM4.75.

Bucking the trend among heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare both gained 4 sen to RM12.94 and RM7.99, respectively.

Active Stocks & Top Movers

In active trade, Zetrix AI dropped 2.5 sen to 16.5 sen, while JCY International perked up 2.5 sen to 58 sen. Jaks Resources gained half a sen to 19 sen, Ni Hsin edged down half a sen to 38.5 sen, and MAG held flat at 15.5 sen.

Midday top gainers included:

• Solarvest, surging 28 sen to RM4.40.
• Ranhill Utilities, climbing 15 sen to RM3.34.
• Southern Cable, jumping 14 sen to RM2.90.
• KLCC Property REITS, advancing 13 sen to RM8.48.
• Petronas Dagangan, rising 12 sen to RM19.44.

Conversely, Malaysian Pacific Industries emerged as the session’s biggest loser, declining RM1.50 to RM40.70. Fraser & Neave shed 74 sen to RM21.48, United Plantations lost 28 sen to RM31.32, Allianz Malaysia shaved off 18 sen to RM20.92, and Unisem slid 16 sen to RM4.33.

Index & Sector Performance

Main market indices reflected widespread losses at the noon break:

• The FBM Emas Index fell 84.42 points to 12,330.37.
• The FBM Top 100 Index reduced 87.14 points to 12,119.81.
• The FBM Mid 70 Index lost 72.29 points to 17,615.47.
• The FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 55.22 points to 12,187.10.
• The FBM ACE Index bucked the broader trend, gaining 8.52 points to 5,499.13.

Sectorally, the Financial Services Index registered the steepest losses, falling 203.82 points to 19,394.56, while the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.79 of a point to 182.01. On the upside, the Energy Index gained 3.86 points to 865.68, and the Plantation Index advanced 29.22 points to 9,247.71.

–NMT