KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Bursa Malaysia settled the morning trading session lower on Wednesday due to profit-taking activities, primarily in the plantation and utilities sectors, and in line with the mostly lower regional market performance.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gave up five points to 1,533.42 from Tuesday’s close of 1,538.42.

The benchmark index, which opened 1.91 points lower at 1,536.51, moved between 1,528.52 and 1,536.58 throughout the session. 

The market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing advancers 546 to 350 while 448 counters were unchanged, 994 untraded and 74 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 2.12 billion units worth RM1.49 billion.  

At the time of writing, some key regional markets were also higher at midday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipping 0.63% to 16,512.92, China's SSE Composite Index dropping 0.52% to 3,015.74 and South Korea’s Kospi Index giving up 0.13% to 2,753.39.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd slid three sen each to RM4.22 and RM6.80, while Maybank Bhd added a sen to RM9.70, CIMB Group BHoldings Bhd advanced five sen to RM6.55 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd gained six sen to RM11.26.

Among the actives, market debutant Zantat Holdings Bhd rose 11.5 sen to 36.5 sen, Ekovest Bhd added two sen to 50 sen and SP Setia Bhd perked up three sen to RM1.45 while Computer Forms (M) Bhd and Lambo Group Bhd were flat at 15 sen and three sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 17.37 points to 11,544.23, the FBMT 100 Index declined by 17.92 points to 11,188.4 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased by 39.55 points to 11,626.22 and the FBM ACE Index lower 28.65 points to 4,881.37.

The FBM 70 Index rose by 50.14 points to 16,151.7.

Sector-wise the Plantation Index gave up by 46.69 points to 7,297.83, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased by 0.07 of a point to 179.59, the Financial Services Index firmed up by 0.76 of a point to 17,220.80 and the Energy Index added 9.05 points to 947.3.

Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries will be closed on Thursday (March 28) in conjunction with Nuzul Al-Quran. 

The exchange and its subsidiaries will resume operations on Friday.