KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 14): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in the red, weighed by continuous profit-taking on selected heavyweight counters, a dealer said. 

At the lunch break on Monday (Nov 14), the FBM KLCI had fallen 6.34 points to 1,461.87 from last Friday's close at 1,468.21.

The market bellwether opened 0.78 point better at 1,468.99.

On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 421 to 349, while 361 counters were unchanged, 1,194 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.57 billion units valued at RM707.01 million. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng expects the key index to hover within the 1,460 to 1,475 range on Monday, despite some intermittent profit-taking activities. 

"We reckon that the local bourse will remain intact, following a month-high closing at almost the 1,470-point mark last Friday, lifted by a strong recovery in global equities, and positive Malaysian economic data for the third quarter of 2022," he told Bernama.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd agreed that the local bourse should remain resilient, taking its cue from the buoyant Wall Street over the weekend. 

It said that investors may pay attention to US economic data, such as retail sales and jobs data, which may provide more insights into the aggressiveness of upcoming rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

"Commodities-wise, the crude oil price jumped above US$95 per barrel, as the market cheered the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in China, while the crude palm oil price climbed above RM4,250 per tonne," it noted. 

Among heavyweight stocks, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) decreased two sen to RM8.58, Public Bank Bhd went down seven sen to RM4.38, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd lost three sen to RM8.70, and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd eased three sen to RM5.49. IHH Healthcare Bhd was flat at RM6.00. 

As for the actives, Advance Synergy Bhd added half a sen to 14 sen and G3 Global gained half a sen to three sen, while Top Glove Corp Bhd improved by 3.5 sen to 99.5 sen. Techna-X Bhd added one sen to 3.5 sen, while Widad Group Bhd slipped 1.5 sen to 38.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 18.22 points to 10,511.36, the FBM Emas Index dropped 29.35 points to 10,387.55, and the FBMT 100 Index narrowed 32.12 points to 10,119.47. The FBM ACE lost 9.37 points to 5,083.94. 

However, the FBM 70 pushed up 8.04 points to 12,380.06. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index trimmed 64.26 points to 16,288.97, the Plantation Index eased 5.68 points to 6,897.05, and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.45 of a point to 178.95.

The Energy Index bagged 7.01 points to hit 731.33.