KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI is en route to ending the week on a sour note as it failed to sustain the advance in the previous session.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down 4.68 points to 1,491.1 as investors returned to profit-taking on deteriorating market sentiment.
A record in daily new Covid infections set off a fresh wave of anxiety despite expectations that the growing vaccination rate in the country will lead to an economic reopening at the end of the year.
The domestic market performance was at odds with a positive performance on Wall Street overnight with the Dow Jones rising 0.8% on the back of strong corporate earnings and falling jobless claims.
In financial counters, Maybank was down five sen to RM7.99, Public Bank slid one sen to RM3.95, CIMB dropped two sen to RM4.53 and Hong Leong Bank dipped two sen to RM18.28.
Among telcos, Digi weighed seven sen to RM4.23, Maxis declined seven sen to RM4.30 and Axiata slid two sen to RM3.74.
Most active stocks on the broader market were Kanger down 0.5 sne to six sen, VSolar uncahnged at 1.5 sen and BCM Alliance up 0.5 sen to 16.5 sen.
In regional markets, markets remained soft as the spread of the Delta variant of the Covid virus continued to cast doubts over the economy recovery.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.3% while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3%.
In China, the composite index was down 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stayed flat.
Australia’s ASX200 was also mostly unchanged.
