KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia continued its downtrend to close lower at midday, on cautious trading following the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) delayed rate cut signal.
At 12:30 pm, the benchmark declined by 7.18 points to 1,545.22 compared to Wednesday's closing level of 1,552.40.
The benchmark index began the day 1.69 points lower at 1,550.71.
Market activity leaned towards the negative side, with more stocks declining 464) than advancing 396, while 471 stocks remained unchanged, 986 were not traded, and 20 were suspended.
Total turnover reached 2.03 billion units valued at RM1.10 billion.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said despite US markets rallying strongly on Nvidia strong earnings and Japan markets cresting record highs, the local markets have taken a step back, perhaps possibly due to a more cautious Fed's latest FOMIC minutes.
"To what degree inbound flows are drying up due to the weaker ringgit could also be a factor triggering an extended period of profit taking," he told Business Times.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said on the local front, it reckoned the market sentiment will stay positive amid the better-than-expected corporate earnings season.
"We believe the market may be focusing on property, construction and building material as well as oil and gas sectors following corporate earnings releases from Sunway-related, Avaland, and Perdana.
"Meanwhile, we still expect the Technology to improve further from this point in tandem with the spike in Nvidia after hours following the release of corporate earnings," it added.
