BURSA Malaysia opened lower today, taking its cue from the Wall Street’s negative performance overnight amidst cautious market sentiments, an analyst said.
At 9.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 1.65 points to 1,433.48 from Friday’s close of 1,435.13.
The barometer index opened 0.34 points lower at 1,434.79.
Market breadth was negative as decliners surpassed gainers 151 versus 122, while 274 counters were unchanged, 1,720 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 215.62 million units worth RM79.77 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the Wall Street closed lower on Friday due to rate hike jitters, despite Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan reporting better-than-expected results for the first quarter of the year.
“The Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) Average lost 143 points while the Nasdaq declined by 43 points as the United States Treasury 10-year yield ended higher at above the 3.51 per cent level,” he told Bernama.
On the home front, he reckoned that buying interests would continue pouring into the blue chips, and therefore the index is likely to hover within the 1,435-1,445 range today.
“Though banking stocks may be the flavour for the day, we believe that overall, buying will be broad-based,” he said.
Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, Maybank shed three sen to RM8.68 and Public Bank eased one sen to RM3.98, while Petronas Chemicals, CIMB and Tenaga Nasional were unchanged at RM7.40, RM5.23 and RM9.21, respectively.
As for the actives, Hong Seng and Tanco added half-a-sen to 14 sen and 48 sen, respectively, Revenue Group rose two sen to 42.5 sen, Malaysia Building Society Bhd gained 2.5 sen to 63 sen and Salutica increased 16 sen to RM1.25.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shrank 9.10 points to 10,559.81, the FBMT 100 Index lost 9.19 points to 10,237.57, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 7.80 points to 10,935.04, the FBM ACE Index was 5.98 points lower at 5,362.20 and the FBM 70 index slid 1.62 points to 13,868.42.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index improved by 0.05 of-a-point to 175.70, while the Plantation Index decreased by 8.15 points to 6,842.98, the Financial Services Index gave up by 5.95 points to 15,728.25 and the Energy Index eased 0.21 of-a-point to 877.58. — Bernama / pic TMR