KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses to open lower, in early trade, today on lack of buying interest in selected heavyweights, dealers said.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,781.90, down 13.18 points.

Losses were mostly seen in key heavyweights like Maybank and Axiata. 

Maybank lost 20 sen to RM10.36 while Axiata shed 12 sen to RM6.71, with both counters dragging down the composite index by 4.989 points. 

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local bourse could remain under selling pressure for the time being following its weak underlying performance yesterday.

It said the benchmark FBM KLCI might pull back a bit more from the psychological mark of 1,800 points, possibly retreating towards the immediate support level of 1,785 points ahead.

“This comes as investors will likely play the wait-and-see game pending the outcome of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting later tonight,” said HwangDBS. 

On the scoreboard, the Finance index dropped 169.59 points to 16,965.84, the Plantation Index eased 19.88 points to 8,358.92 and the Industrial index fell 10.27 points to 3,036.51. 

The FBM Emas Index erased 72.75 points to 12,430.96, the FBM100 Index trimmed 74 points to 12,176.26, the FBM 70 Index decreased 21.51 points to 14,379.17 but the FBM ACE Index rose 11.52 points to 5,058.77.

Gainers outpaced losers 110 to 59, with 120 counters unchanged, 1,310 untraded and 43 others were suspended.

Turnover amounted to 70.939 million shares worth RM38.328 million.

Among actives, Lion Diversified added one sen to 28 sen, Pesona Metro eased two sen to 33 sen while Luster Industries and Tanco Holdings were both flat at 10 sen and 19 sen, respectively.

Sona Petroleum shares and warrants both slipped half-a-sen to 44 sen and 25.5 sen, respectively. 

Among heavyweights, Sime Darby added one sen to RM9.50 while CIMB eased seven sen to RM8.08, Petronas Chemicals shed seven sen to RM6.58 and Maxis slipped two sen to RM7.07. — Bernama