KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia spent the morning in the red as investors pared back expectations for global equities this year following a hotter-than-expected US inflation report.
At 12.30pm, Malaysia’s key stock index was down 5.89 points to 1,525.48, with leading laggards coming from the plantations and commodities sectors.
There were 523 decliners on Bursa Malaysia compared to 301 gainers and 413 unchanged. Trading volume was 1.58 billion shares valued for RM874.72mil.
Among the blue-chips, Sime Darby Plantation fell nine sen to RM4.46, IOI dropped three sen to RM4.01 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong dipped eight sen to RM22.50.
PETRONAS Chemicals shed seven sen to RM6.77, Press Metal dropped eight sen to RM4.58 and Tenaga Nasional slid eight sen to RM11.
YTL Power, one of the day’s top traded counters, shed six sen to RM3.92 while other leading actives included Ekovest sliding 0.5 sen to 54 sen and Dnex losing 1.5 sen to 35 sen.
In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei stepped back 0.9% to 37,611 as investors pared back their interest rate cut bets, although the index remains 13% up year-to-date
South Korea’s Kospi was down 1% to 2,622.
China’s mainland markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.15% to 15,769.