KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened in negative territory today following overnight losses on Wall Street, driven by better-than-expected US economic growth data, dealers said.

At 9.06am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was quoted 5.02 points lower at 1,801.59 after opening at 1,801.29.

Turnover stood at 74.78 million shares worth RM41.71 million. Losers edged gainers by 109 to 73, with 138 counters unchanged, 1,269 untraded and 28 others suspended.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the US economy grew by 2.8 per cent for the third quarter, leading to expectations that the giant economy might begin to taper its monetary stimulus programme sooner than later.

“Even so, our Malaysian bourse could show resilience today,” it said in a note today. “On the chart, the key FBM KLCI will probably find support at the psychological mark of 1,800 ahead.”

Bank Negara Malaysia at the monetary policy committee meeting yesterday maintained the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 3 per cent.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index dipped 74.70 points to 16,645.27, the Plantation Index fell 7.48 points to 8,616.06, while the Industrial Index was up 1.07 points to 3,124.16. The FBM Emas Index contracted 24.79 points to 12,547.91, the FBMT100 Index shed 24.66 points to 12,272.24, and the FBM Ace was 15.38 points lower at 5,803.45. The FBM 70 gained 10.32 points to 14,333.83.

Among actives, Sersol and Insas earned 0.5 sen each to 56 sen and 81 sen respectively, while Dialog added 1.6 sen to RM3.06. The Media Shoppe and Astral were both unchanged at 8.5 sen and 20.5 sen respectively.

Among heavyweights, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals were unchanged at RM9.50 and RM7.10 respectively. Axiata lost 1 sen to RM6.85, Maybank lost 3 sen to RM9.88 and CIMB inched down 9 sen to RM7.50. — Bernama