by TMR

Malaysia’s equity main index was lower at at the end of the morning session as the world’s equity markets shivered while waiting for Washington-led tariffs action on Chinese imports later today.

At 12.30pm, the local equity market shed 12.84 points to 1,677.81. Despite opening 3.87 points higher at 1,694.52 this morning, the index fell to a low of 1,675.35.

A total of 1.09 billion shares were traded for RM706.54 million throughout the day. Losers led gainers 446 to 237 while 342 counters were unchanged and 842 untraded.

Top losers comprised index heavyweights Public Bank Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Shangri-La Hotels (M) Bhd and Nestle (M) Bhd.

Gainers included Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Ideal United Bintang International Bhd and Heineken Malaysia Bhd.

Asian markets were mixed with both Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Singapore’s STI down at 3,825.31 (19.87 points lower) and 3,184.07 (72.64 points lower) respectively.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 235.37 points at 21,782.36 and Korea’s KOSPI higher by 1.83 points at 2,259.38.

US markets were up after the holiday break with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 181.92 points at 24,356.74 and the S&P 500 up 23.39 points at 2,736.61.