Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session lower on Wednesday as investors sold all stocks in the industrial services and consumer products sectors.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 7.04 points (0.48%) to 1,540.59 from its close of 1,547.99 yesterday.
The benchmark index opened 0.7 points lower at 1,547.29 and it moved between 1,539.21 and 1,548.42 throughout the morning session.
On broader sentiment, losers outnumbered gainers by 523 to 400. Meanwhile, 460 counters were unchanged, 911 were untraded and 13 others were suspended.
The total turnover was 2.59 billion units worth RM1.22 billion.
Local bourses trailed Wall Street's performance after the three major US stock indexes fell about 1% in Tuesday's trading session.
Based on Maybank Investment Bank's technical report, they expect the KLCI index to move between 1,530 to 1,550 today and support levels are placed at 1,525 and 1,508.
Meanwhile, Petronas Dagangan Bhd fell 38 sen to RM21.90 among heavyweights, Hong Leong Bank Bhd fell 24 sen to RM19.32 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd lost 14 sen to RM11.30. CIMB Group Holdings Bhd lost eight sen to RM6.58 and Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd dropped 18 sen to RM16.72.
Among active stocks, Zen Tech International Bhd rose half a sen to two sen, SNS Network Technology Bhd rose seven sen to 40 sen, SC Estate Builder Bhd fell half a sen to one sen and SMTrack Bhd was unchanged at 4.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 37 points to 11,603.46, the FBMT 100 Index fell 38.22 points to 11,242.7 and the FBM ACE Index fell 10.45 points to 4,937.35.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 17.07 points to 11,716.88 while the FBM 70 Index rose 9.42 points to 16,238.06.
In terms of sectors, the Financial Services Index decreased by 139.03 points to 17,221.4 and the Plantation Index was lower by 8.19 points to 7,302.46. The Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.1 points to 179.94 and the Energy Index added 5.28 points to 962.2.
