Investors take profit amid regional weakness

KUALA LUMPUR: The rally on the domestic market stalled in mid-morning trade with investors locking in profits in line with other Asian markets.

The FBM KLCI was down 1.19 points to 1,570.29 at the lunch break, as the six-day winning streak looked set to come to an end.

Investors were similarly down on Bursa Malaysia’s lower liners, selling down 555 stocks as compared to 377 gainers while 457 remained unchanged.

Among the blue chips, Genting shed seven sen to RM4.51, Press Metal dropped seven sen to RM5.44, Tenaga Nasional slid four sen to Rm11.82 and Sime Darby lost four sen to RM2.78.

Top actives were Sapura Energy unchanged at 4.5 sen, Berjaya Corp up 2.5 sen to 31 sen and Ekovest down 0.5 sen to 45.5 sen.

Overnight, a disappointing revenue forecast by Meta Platforms derailed a corporate earnings-driven rally, and set a more cautious tone for Thursday trade.

Major regional stock indices slumped, including Japan’s Nikkei, falling 2% to 37,685, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index sliding 0.3% to 3,283.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.55% to 17,295 while China’s composite index was up 0.2% to 3,049.