KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session on a softer note, with buying interest interspersed with selling activities in heavyweight counters.

Of the 30 key index component stocks, 16 were losers, 10 were gainers and four were unchanged.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 4.44 points to 1,616.70 from Wednesday's close of 1,621.14.

The index opened 4.06 points lower at 1,617.08 and fluctuated between 1,610.58 and 1,618.00 during the morning session.

In the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 859 to 224, while 445 counters were unchanged, 960 untraded, and 17 others suspended. 

Total turnover amounted to 2.79 billion units valued at RM1.45 billion.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it believes more profit-taking activities may emerge on the local front amid the correction in the United States market following the artificial intelligence-driven rally recently.

"Nevertheless, we believe this could be an opportunity to buy the dips going forward, especially on the data centre theme in the local market.

"We favour the construction, property, utilities, and building materials segments. Additionally, we like selected stocks within the shipping and technology sectors as we observe the upward trend remains intact," it said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added 2.0 sen to RM4.20, IHH Healthcare rose 3.0 sen to RM6.28, while Maybank declined 2.0 sen to RM10.10, Tenaga Nasional dropped 16.0 sen to RM14.24, and CIMB Group decreased 3.0 sen to RM7.17.

Among the actives, OCR Group added half-a-sen to 11 sen, Zen Tech International and Hubline were flat at 1.0 sen and 13 sen respectively, while Artroniq and Ekovest slipped by 1.0 sen each to 20 sen and 48 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 57.75 points to 12,490.07, the FBMT 100 Index lost 52.07 points to 12,073.59, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 86.38 points to 12,790.50, the FBM 70 Index fell 148.91 points to 18,545.48, and the FBM ACE Index declined 30.62 points to 5,826.24.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index shaved off 19.39 points to 7,153.25, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 1.03 points to 192.28, and the Energy Index shed 5.37 points to 960.66.

Meanwhile, the Financial Services Index put on 4.22 points to 17,954.52.

-- BERNAMA