Bursa Malaysia was lower at midday on Thursday, dragged down by broad-based selling across heavyweight counters, with investors turning cautious amid regional weakness.
The FBM KLCI fell 25.12 points or 1.43% to 1,731.37 at 12.35 pm, after moving between an intraday high of 1,753.31 and a low of 1,719.52.
Market breadth was negative, with losses seen across key indices.
The FBM 70 declined 146.33 points or 0.83% to 17,416.90, while the FBM Emas slid 158.30 points or 1.23% to 12,684.09.
The FBM Shariah Index dropped 134.93 points or 1.09% to 12,261.34 and the F4GBM Index eased 13.51 points or 1.31% to 1,021.54.
Trading activity remained active, led by ZETRIX, which was the most traded counter, slipping 2 sen to 80 sen on a volume of about 50.98 million shares.
Capital A was also actively traded, rising 3.5 sen to 62 sen on 50.03 million shares, while Velesto traded flat at 30.5 sen with 40.08 million shares changing hands.
BPURI added half a sen to 30 sen and NICE gained half a sen to 12 sen, both seeing heavy volumes.
On the gainers’ board, Nestle edged up 50 sen to RM114.00, while VSTECS rose 18 sen to RM4.21.
BNASTRA and SCGBHD each gained 7 sen to RM2.15 and RM2.13 respectively, while KJTS advanced 5.5 sen to 87.5 sen.
Meanwhile, selling pressure was evident among blue chips. Fraser & Neave led the losers, falling 90 sen to RM34.60.
Hong Leong Bank dropped 68 sen to RM24.16, Allianz declined 38 sen to RM22.86, PPB slid 38 sen to RM11.02 and Hong Leong Financial Group eased 36 sen to RM21.64.
Overall sentiment remained cautious as investors pared exposure ahead of the afternoon session, with market participants closely watching regional cues and upcoming economic signals.
