Bursa Malaysia ended the afternoon session lower with a sell-off in selected heavyweights amid improved performance in most regional markets.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 2.71 to 1,615.56 compared to Monday's close of 1,618.27.
The barometer index opened 2.38 points higher at 1,620.65 and moved between 1,614.54 and 1,622.93 throughout the morning session.
Broad market sentiment was negative as losers outnumbered gainers by 786 to 301. Meanwhile, 434 counters were unchanged, 903 were untraded and 42 others were suspended.
The total turnover amounted to 2.99 billion units worth RM1.91 billion.
According to Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, the main events that the market will be monitoring for now are the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index data, Unemployment Claims, Core Personal Consumer Expenditure Index (PCE) and US Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the local market, they said investors will put capital into sectors with high confidence where the current theme is increased investment in data centers in Malaysia.
Among the sectors receiving attention are technologies such as HDD players, hardware components and cloud storage distribution providers in the latest digital market.
In addition, they also believe that data centers can benefit the real estate, construction, building materials and utilities sectors.
Among the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM13.24, Maybank and CIMB were both unchanged at RM9.99 and RM6.90, IHH Healthcare and Petronas Chemicals fell six sen to RM6.23 and RM6 respectively. 81.
Among the active stocks, the first company ACE Market Smart Asia Chemical rose 6.5 sen to 46.5 sen, GHL Systems rose five sen to RM1.06, PDZ Holdings rose one sen to five sen, Sin-Kung Logistics was unchanged at 14 sen and SNS Network declined 2.5 sen to 62.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 36.40 points to 12,310.72, the FBMT 100 Index fell 33.05 points to 11,911.24, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 56.18 points to 12,569.84, the FBM Index fell 70.84, and the FBM Index fell 70.84. The FBM 70 index decreased by 102.05 points to 17,701.70.
In terms of sectors, the Financial Services Index decreased by 24.44 points to 17,633.89, the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased by 1.08 points to 195.41, the Energy Index decreased by 7.52 points to 991.89 and the Plantation Index increased by 3.15 points to 7,261.23.
