FBM KLCI remains negative amid investor jitters

KUALA LUMPUR: The profit-taking on Bursa Malaysia continued on Wednesday, with investors cashing out ahead of the Aug 1 US tariffs deadline and the Federal Reserve rate decision later tonight.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 5.21 points to 1,518.61 with the decline led by heavyweight banks.

Among the leading laggards, CIMB slid nine sen to RM6.55, Maybank dropped six sen to RM9.46 and RHB lost three sen to RM6.18.

Tenga Nasional retreated eight sen to RM13.24, while YTL Power shed five sen to RM4.07 and YTL Corp dropped four sen to RM2.44.

There was also a broad decline among the lower liners with the number of negative issues outnumbering positive at a ratio of more than 2-to-1. Volume was 1.55 billion shares changing hands for RM939.65mil.

Of actives, NexG was flat at 53 sen, Pharmaniaga dropped two sen to 16 sen and SFP Tech slid 2.5 sen to 16 sen.

Asian markets are in a cautious mood as investors brace for a raft of big tech earnings scheduled for release on Wall Street, as well as the latest guidance from the Fed and econonomic reports on the health of the US economy.

Following the previous day's weakness, there was mild upward retracement in major markets. China's composite index was up 0.52% to 3,628 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.43% to 25,415.

Japan's NIkkei was flat at 40,678 and South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.14% to 3,267.