Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session unchanged on Tuesday but the main indices only managed to remain in positive territory amid mixed regional performance.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.05 points to 1,537.59 from Monday's close of 1,537.54.
The benchmark index opened 1.48 points lower at 1,536.06 and now moves between 1,532.07 and 1,540.51 throughout the session.
Market sentiment was broadly negative with losers outnumbering gainers by 480 to 417. Meanwhile, 461 counters were unchanged, 982 were untraded and 47 others were suspended.
The total turnover amounted to 2.04 billion units worth RM1.29 billion.
In their statement, several major regional markets were also higher at midday with Japan's Nikkei index almost flat but good 0.07% to 40,441.69, Singapore's Straits Times Index also up 0.85% to 3,225.18 and South Korea's Kospi gaining 0.7% to 2,756.
Among heavyweights, Maybank Bhd rose four sen to RM9.66, while Public Bank Bhd, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd were all unchanged at RM4.24, RM6.50 and RM11.50 respectively. Petronas Chemical Group Bhd rose two sen to RM6.80.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 16.2 points to reach 11,557.19, the FBMT 100 Index increased 14.14 points to 11,202.79 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 22.97 points to 11,654.21. The FBM 70 Index rose 76.89 points to 16,106.77 and the FBM ACE Index rose 4.46 points to 4,885.33.
