Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses to open lower today, taking the cue from a weaker overnight Wall Street performance in tandem with most of the regional peers.

The United States (US) stocks retreated yesterday while the dollar gathered strength amid warnings that markets might have gotten ahead of themselves concerning the timing and extent of central bank policy cuts, a dealer said.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.24 points lower at 1,490.63 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,493.87.

The FBM KLCI opened 1.98 points easier at 1,491.89.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 201 to 104, while 294 counters were unchanged, 1,644 untraded and 17 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 235.12 million units worth RM147.79 million.

Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street retreated mainly due to the weak fourth quarter 2023 earnings from mega banks in addition to the declines in both Tesla and Apple amid a tougher market environment.

As such, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 232 points while the Nasdaq declined by 28 points with the US 10-year yield inching higher to 4.054 per cent.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index continues to slide as it lost 350 points to below the 16,000 mark or a 14-month low, dragged by real estate and consumer non-cyclical stocks

Back home, the FBM KLCI opened strongly yesterday before profit-taking activities in the afternoon session pressured the index to below the crucial 1,500 level.

“We hope for a quick rebound above this psychological level, otherwise we may see another interim consolidation for the index. Hence, we expect the index to trend within the 1,495 to 1,505 range today underpinned by broad-based bargain hunting activities,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank shed two sen to RM4.34, CIMB eased one sen to RM6.00, Tenaga Nasional fell six sen RM10.40 while Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.06 and RM6.88 respectively.

Of the actives, Sarawak Consolidated edged up half-a-sen to 84 sen, Leform gained two sen to 29 sen, Ekovest slid half-a-sen to 55.5 sen while KNM Group and Tanco were flat at 9.5 sen and 65.5 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index eased 18.41 points to 11,125.23, the FBM 70 Index shed 30.30 points to 15,111.59, the FBMT 100 Index declined 22.93 points to 10,770.06, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 14.34 to 11,244.07 but the FBM ACE Index rose 23.04 points to 5,220.97.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 46.52 points to 16,624.07,  the Plantation Index eased 2.52 points to 7,161.49, and the Property Index was down 5.11 points to 891.13 while, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.10 of-a-point better at 176.60 and the Energy Index improved 1.32 points to 860.13. — BERNAMA