KL >>> Midday stocks remain in negative territory

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning lower in lacklustre trade with major index linked counters in the red, in line with the bearish sentiment on other major regional markets, a dealer said.

At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) dropped 5.24 points to 1,166.04 after opening 5.66 points lower at 1,165.62. Sentiment was dampened further by the overnight losses on Wall Street over renewed fears of the banking and financial sector, the dealer explained.

The Industrial Index fell 14.68 points to 2,571.95, the Plantation Index shed 13.72 points to 5,761.52, the Finance Index slipped 35.979 points to 9,397.29 and the FBM Top 100 dipped 36.64 points to 7,642.33.

The FBM70 shrank 46.31 points to 7,725.54 and the FBM Ace Index slid 37.41 points to 4,051.88.Losers outnumbered gainers by 401 to 89 while 197 counters were unchanged, 587 untraded and three others suspended.

Turnover stood at 242.945 million shares worth RM376.623 million. Dutch Lady led the losers. It shed 20 sen to RM11.30 while Magni was down 14.5 sen to 84 sen and Subur was 14 sen lower at RM1.90. The counters that bucked the trend were Panasonic which jumped 20 sen to RM12.50 with Silver Bird adding 15 sen to 79 sen and Tanjong rising 14 sen to RM15.58.

Among the actives, KNM slipped 2.5 sen to 73.5 sen, Multi Sports shed 2.5 sen to 52.5 sen, Compugates was flat at seven sen, TAS Offshore narrowed 3.5 sen to 76.5 sen and Telekom Malaysia perked two sen to RM3.13.

For the heavyweights, Sime Darby slid six sen to RM8.20, Maybank and Bumiputra-Commerce shed four sen each to RM6.39 and RM10.18 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional inched down one sen to RM8.02 and IOI Corp was flat at RM5.04.