Heavyweight stocks pare Bursa Malaysia losses at midday
Bursa Malaysia pared losses at midday after bargain hunting lifted heavyweight counters Petronas Chemicals, Tenaga Nasional and Kuala Lumpur Kepong.
Source: The Star · August 6, 2026 at 9:18 PM · AI-assisted report
Corroborated
KUALA LUMPUR, 7 AUGUST 2026 —
Bursa Malaysia pared losses at midday after bargain hunting lifted heavyweight counters Petronas Chemicals, Tenaga Nasional and Kuala Lumpur Kepong.
Market Impact
At 12.30 pm the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.86 points at 1,677.10, a turnaround from the 1.58-point drop at the 9.00 am open when the index fell to 1,677.38 from Wednesday’s close of 1,678.96.
Trade stayed negative: losers beat gainers 582 to 407, 491 stocks were unchanged, 1,211 were untraded and 21 remained suspended. Turnover totalled 1.96 billion shares worth RM1.10 billion, according to Bernama.
Malacca Securities said in a note that it expects Bursa Malaysia to follow overnight selling in the United States and face renewed pressure today, which could create buying opportunities in banking stocks.
“Meanwhile, the rebound in crude oil prices should benefit oil- and chemical-related companies, including Petronas Chemicals, Heng Yuan and Hibiscus Petroleum,” the firm said.
It also favoured the plantation sector, citing Indonesia’s accelerated B45/B50 biodiesel rollout and expectations of an El Niño weather pattern in coming months.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.07% to 4,962.17, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.31% to 7,755.12 and Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.28% to 64,361.11, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.11% to 24,136.17.
Heavyweights showed mixed moves: Tenaga Nasional rose 12 sen to RM14.34, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM10.68 and RM4.76 respectively, CIMB lost five sen to RM7.35 and IHH Healthcare fell six sen to RM8.61.
Active stocks were mostly lower: Zetrix eased three sen to 81.5 sen, VS Industry trimmed one sen to 20 sen, while MM Computer Systems and Hong Seng were flat at 22 sen and one sen.
Top gainers included Nestlé, up 98 sen at RM94.76, Kuala Lumpur Kepong up 34 sen at RM20.82, Batu Kawan up 32 sen at RM20.60, Fraser and Neave up 26 sen at RM26.04 and Hong Leong Industries up 24 sen at RM18.24.
Top losers were BLD Plantation down 70 sen at RM14.30, Ideal Capital down 60 sen at RM3.50 and United Plantation down 54 sen at RM31.76.
Broad indices fell: the FBM Emas Index dropped 25.45 points to 12,431.03, the FBM Top 100 Index eased 24.35 points to 12,277.87 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 7.69 points to 12,408.80.
Mid-cap and small-cap gauges were weaker still: the FBM Mid 70 Index fell 81.53 points to 17,870.36 and the FBM ACE Index declined 22.17 points to 4,638.48.
By sector, the Financial Services Index led declines, down 69.52 points to 19,512.89, while the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.30 points to 198.13, the Energy Index added 4.09 points to 782.86 and the Plantation Index inched up 2.85 points to 8,797.07.
Related: Petronas · Bursa Malaysia · Kuala Lumpur