KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed in negative territory at midday, mirroring the performance of its regional counterparts.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 3.81points to 1,460.87 from Thursday's closing of 1,464.68.
The key index started the day 3.09 points lower at 1,461.59 and fluctuated between 1,459.33 and 1,462.31 during the morning trading session.
On the broader market, decliners led gainers 437 to 332, while 442 counters were unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 1.96 billion units valued at RM856.58 million.
Malacca Research Securities said Wall Street traded flat for the session after a significant run as investors reassessed the softer economic data, where the impact from the elevated interest rate hike environment was noticed.
"We believe the overall market sentiment may slow down further as investors could be eyeing on the US home start and building permits data later tonight. "Thus, the FBM KLCI may expect further profit taking activities with traders slowing down on their exposure ahead of the weekend break," it said in its daily market review.
The firm noted that the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector has traded on a positive note, given expectations of a an interest rate pause for the near term, coupled with the healthy earnings.
Meanwhile, it expects traders to avoid the oil and gas (O&G) sector amid falling Brent oil prices. "We also favour the construction, property, building material, utilities and consumer sectors in anticipation of better earnings momentum under a normalised costs and higher demand environment for the respective sectors," it said.