KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): Bursa Malaysia continued to stay in the red across the board at midday as the overall market sentiment remained weak, weighed down by profit-taking in selected heavyweight stocks, a dealer said.

At the lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 5.11 points to 1,478.86 from Tuesday's close of 1,483.97.

The key index opened 1.17 points weaker at 1,482.8 and moved between 1,478.31 and 1,484.1 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 430 to 313, while 401 counters were unchanged, 1,069 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.83 billion units worth RM857.71 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd reckons bargain-hunting activities will emerge ahead of the earnings season later this month on the expectation corporate Malaysia will churn out decent earnings growth for 2022.

“In view of the mixed performance on Wall Street overnight, we anticipate the key index to hover between the 1,475 and 1,490 range today (Wednesday) with a focus on banking stocks for the rest of the day,” the brokerage said in a note on Wednesday.

At the noon break, Bursa heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd lost six sen to RM8.74, Public Bank Bhd fell three sen to RM4.16, and Tenaga Nasional Bhd declined three sen to RM9.90. Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd went down two sen to RM8.13, and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd slid one sen to RM5.40.

As for the actives, MyEG Services Bhd rose half-a-sen to 63 sen, Zen Tech International Bhd gained half-a-sen to 3.5 sen, and Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd was half-a-sen higher at 21.5 sen. Saudee Group Bhd slipped half-a-sen to four sen, and Anzo Holdings Bhd eased one sen to one sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 27.01 points to 10,760.75, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 29.16 points to 10,428.25, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 16.25 points to 11,095.63. The FBM 70 Index lost 8.37 points to 13,566.77, and the FBM ACE Index added 9.52 points to 5,701.19.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index crept up 0.27 point to 189.8, while the Financial Services Index weakened by 64 points to 16,092.5. The Plantation Index was 27.93 points lower at 6,888.61, and the Energy Index dropped 2.09 points to 894.63.