KUALA LUMPUR (June 4): Bursa Malaysia was lower at midday due to profit taking on selected heavyweights ahead of the long weekend, led by the telecommunications, banking, transportation and healthcare-linked counters.

The downtrend was also seen in regional markets, such as Japan's Nikkei which declined 0.43% to 28,932.79 and Singapore's Straits Times index which dropped 0.09% to 3,162.10.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI had slipped 8.49 points, or 0.53%, to 1,582.08 from yesterday's close at 1,590.57.

The market barometer opened 0.27 of a point lower at 1,590.30, and hovered between 1,576.16 and 1,590.31 throughout the morning trading session.

On the scoreboard, the market tone was negative with losers surpassing gainers 528 to 386, while 430 counters were unchanged, 798 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.27 billion units worth RM1.74 billion.

A dealer said some of the major market indices were slowly recovering, which helped to provide some support to the benchmark index. 

Transportation and logistics, for example, rose 4.2% to 870.54.

The Healthcare Index, on the other hand, lost 1.23% to 3,087.54.

Among the heavyweights, healthcare-linked companies such as IHH Healthcare Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Supermax Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd erased five sen, four sen, six sen and two sen each to RM5.33, RM4.96, RM3.95 and RM8.66 respectively.

The top losers included Nestlé (Malaysia) Bhd which erased RM1.30 to RM134.50, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) which declined 58 sen to RM38.70 and Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PetDag) which was 24 sen weaker at RM18.86.

The top gainers included Computer Forms (Malaysia) Bhd (CFM) which soared 42 sen to RM4.06, while MMC Corp Bhd improved 39 sen to RM1.69.

Shares in MMC were higher today following an announcement that Seaport Terminal (Johore) Sdn Bhd (STJSB) intends to take it private via a selective capital reduction and repayment exercise.

The utility and infrastructure conglomerate has received a letter from its controlling shareholder STJSB, held via Indra Cita Sdn Bhd, to undertake a selective capital reduction and repayment exercise pursuant to Section 116 of the Companies Act 2016.

Indra Cita owns 51.76% of MMC.

Among the actives, Zelan Bhd rose 4.5 sen to 18 sen and Yong Tai Bhd added 2.5 sen to 29 sen, while Focus Dynamics Group Bhd was flat at 4.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 41.97 points to 11,550.25 and the FBMT 100 Index lost 44.07 points to 11,238.59.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 46.61 points to 12,772.70 and the FBM ACE inched down 3.42 points to 7,772.35, while the FBM 70 rose 3.98 points to 15,011.90. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 54.67 points to 15,155.18 and the Plantation Index decreased 29.59 points to 6,813.20, but the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.31 of a point to 193.81.