KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 9): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session broadly lower due to profit taking across the board, reversing from its 14-point spike in the final minutes of trading yesterday, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI had fallen 13.32 points to 1,584.31 from yesterday’s close at 1,597.63.

The index opened 5.45 points lower at 1,592.18 and moved between 1,582.87 and 1,592.74 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 657 to 289, while 416 counters were unchanged, 857 untraded and six others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.28 billion units worth RM1.36 billion.

A dealer said Bursa stayed in negative territory this morning, tracking the lacklustre overnight performance of global stocks amid investors’ anticipation of the unwinding of central banks’ Covid-19 stimulus measures.

ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were traded cautiously today, following the sell-off in US and European equities amid lagging global growth anxieties, the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) recent stimulus tapering rhetoric and China's ongoing crackdown.

“For the session ahead, traders will digest mixed data from China's Producer Price Index (PPI), which was 50 basis points (bps) above market expectations year-on-year (y-o-y), and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was 20 bps y-o-y below expectations.

“Traders will be keeping a close eye on the main risk event for the week, which is the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy decision, with the market awaiting tapering guidelines amid growing inflation fears in Europe,” he added.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.78% to 29,945.39, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index decreased 1.6% to 25,898.67 and South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 1.3% to 3,121.98, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged up 0.14% to 3,073.19.

Back home, heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) eased one sen each to RM8.30 and RM8.08 respectively, while Public Bank Bhd slipped four sen to RM4.11.

IHH Healthcare Bhd rose 27 sen to RM6.67, while Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) was flat at RM10.30.

Of the actives, Kanger International Bhd and KNM Group Bhd eased half a sen each to 5.5 sen and 26 sen respectively, while Joe Holding Bhd, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd and AT Systematization Bhd were flat at five sen, 5.5 sen and 5.5 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 99.24 points to 11,566.06, the FBMT 100 Index was 100.37 points lower at 11,264.08 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 111.46 points to 12,676.87.

The FBM 70 tumbled 156.43 points to 15,084.09 and the FBM ACE slipped 43.23 points to 7,208.85.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index shed 44.44 points to 6,684.11, the Financial Services Index declined 108.77 points to 15,417.67, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.82 of a point to 201.79.