KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session almost flat today on lack of local market drivers amid weakness in the external environment, dealers said.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.65 of a point to 1,699.05 after moving between 1,696.72 and 1,701.58 throughout the session.
A dealer said the sentiment on the local stock exchange continued to be dampened by resurgent of concerns over weak economic growth globally and in China amid weakening commodity prices.
The broader market was negative with 338 losers and 323 gainers, while 319 counters were unchanged, 839 untraded and 33 suspended.
Turnover stood at 679.33 million shares valued at RM717.33 million.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index gained 7.83 points to 11,745.85, FBMT100 Index edged up 6.229 points to 11,421.92 and the FBM Emas Syariah improved 11.91 points to 12,216.08.
The FBM Ace added 5.8 points to 6,266.73 and the FBM 70 jumped 46.039 points to 12,738.52.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went up 3.71 points to 7,322.65, Industrial Index inched down three points to 3,156.57 and the Finance Index decreased 4.62 points to 15,283.53.
Among actives, Pesona Metro and Ikhmas Jaya added two sen each to 59 sen and 76 sen respectively, APFT gained one sen to 22.5 sen and Metronic earned half a sen to 8.5 sen.
Sunway Construction eased one sen to RM1.19.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.08 while Public Bank added four sen to RM18.82.
TNB lost 12 sen to RM12.12, Axiata slipped one sen to RM6.29 and Sime Darby erased nine sen to RM8.42.--BERNAMA