KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's stock benchmark struggled to gain any ground on Wednesday, closing the early session with a negative result as the expected delay in US interest rate cuts weighed on investors' risk appetite.
The FBM KLCI entered the lunch break 1.24 points lower at 1,533.76, en route to a fifth consecutive day of losses unless investors ramp up bargain-hunting activities in the later session.
Lower liners on Bursa Malaysia, however, received more buying interest with 512 stocks bouncing higher after the market was seen wallowing in a sea of red in the previous day.
In comparison, there were 344 decliners and 461 stocks unchanged on the domestic market. Share turnover was 1.85 billion shares valued at RM1.8bil.
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