KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished the morning trading session lower, as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's new cabinet lineup failed to excite the market enough to push the stock market into positive territory.
Anwar announced his new cabinet lineup, which included a new Finance Minister II in Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan, at 11am today.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 1.15 points to 1,445.24 from yesterday's closing of 1,446.39. The key index opened 0.27 of-a-point easier at 1,446.12 and fluctuated between 1,444.26 and 1,447.72 throughout the session.
On the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 397 to 347, while 414 counters were unchanged.
Turnover stood at 1.84 billion units valued at RM1.16 billion.
Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) said the FBM KLCI may continue its sideways consolidation as investors await more cues of inflation and interest rates outlook from the major global central banks this week.
"Barring a decisive fall below the support trendline, the odds would still favour the bulls to resume its ascent in December," it said in a note today.
Malacca Securities Research said YTL-related companies trended positively following the data centre collaboration news with Nvidia Corp and may spur trading interest in the technology sector.
"Besides, the plans to revive Kuala Lumpur-Singapore (KL-SG) high speed rail (HSR) provide buying interest towards the construction, property, building material as well as renewable energy sectors.
"Meanwhile, with the rebound in Brent oil prices, we may expect trading interest to build up within the oil and gas (O&G) sector," it added.