Bursa Malaysia closed Wednesday's midday session in negative territory following profit-taking activity.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 3.76 points (0.23%) to 1,602.37 from the previous day's close of 1,606.13.
Broad market sentiment was negative with 83 losers outpacing 280 gainers and 445 remaining unchanged.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects that trading opportunities will be more selective with an emphasis on companies in the technology sector especially those involved in data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing which remain the main drivers at the moment.
While several construction, real estate and utilities sectors are consolidating, the market is now also turning its attention to stocks in consumer, shipping, financials and packaging to capture profit opportunities.
In the commodity market, Brent crude oil continued to rise above the $85 per barrel level driven by expectations that summer demand may reduce oil inventories.
Sime Darby gained 4.0 sen to RM2.57, Petronas Gas rose 24 sen to RM17.90 and PPB rose 18 sen to RM14.58.
Apart from Petronas Gas and PPB Group, ATA IMS was better by 16.5 sen at 51 sen, Frontken gained 16 sen to RM4.64 and KESM rose 13 sen to RM7.54.
ATA IMS also led the most active counter followed by Divfex which rose 3.0 sen to 23 sen, Ingenieur Gudang gained 1.0 sen to 7.5 sen, K-One added 2.0 sen to 29 sen while JCY dropped 3.0 sen to 86.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased by 19.54 points to 12,405.99, the FBMT 100 Index increased by 23.29 points to 11,971.07 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index increased by 36.21 points to 12,763.69.
