KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 7): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session in the red, dragged down by persistent selling across the board amidst cautious market sentiment.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 14.45 points to 1,476.02 from Friday's close of 1,490.47.

The benchmark index opened 2.65 points lower at 1,487.82.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 664 to 250, while 345 counters were unchanged, 927 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.54 billion units worth RM1.63 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research Thong Pak Leng said Bursa Malaysia was tracking the weaker Wall Street performance overnight as investors digested last week’s economic data.

“The Wall Street closed lower on Monday as traders became wary of rising bond yield amid some profit-taking activities.

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 36 points while the Nasdaq erased 120 points as the US 10-year yield edged higher to above 3.64%," he told Bernama.

On the home front, Thong said the FBM KLCI ended flat on Friday as sentiments remained cautious but he reckoned bargain hunting may emerge anytime soon as the index has been stuck within a consolidation phase over the past three weeks.  

Hence, he expects the index to trend in the 1,490-1,500 range on Tuesday.

On the local bourse, heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd was down by eight sen to RM8.63, Public Bank Bhd declined three sen to RM4.18, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd fell three sen to RM5.63, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd dropped 13 sen to RM8.18, and Tenaga Nasional Bhd gave up 17 sen to RM9.40.

As for the actives, MyEG Services Bhd shed 22.5 sen to 73 sen, Iris Corp Bhd gained 4.5 sen to 17 sen, Ta Win Holdings Bhd added one sen eight sen, and Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd added half-a-sen to 19.5 sen, while Velesto Energy Bhd was flat at 24.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell by 104.57 points to 10,781.78, the FBMT 100 Index shrank 102.61 points to 10,445.28, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 124.64 points to 11,087.63, the FBM 70 Index slipped 136.71 points to 13,748.28 and the FBM ACE Index edged down by 3.86 points to 5,839.37.  

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.68 points to 190.07, the Energy Index declined 10.06 points to 896.05, the Financial Services Index dwindled 112.32 points to 16,202.5, and the Plantation Index fell 1.91 points to 6,925.33.