KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) on Bursa Malaysia retreated from gains yesterday to open easier this morning on low buying interest.

At 9.06am, the benchmark index stood at 1,828.07, down 5.78 points, after opening 6.99 points lower at 1,826.86, with losses mostly in blue chips and index-linked counters.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local market was lower as investors took a cue from the overnight downward performance on Wall Street.

“The benchmark FBM KLCI could test its immediate support level of 1,825 points though we expect the index to trade sideways today with downside bias, in line with the major US indices,” the research house said in a note today.

Major US stock indices closed lower as the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 declined by 0.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively, partly affected by the softer US manufacturing numbers, it added.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 45.47 points to 16,487.33, the Plantation Index 62.83 points to 8,847.83, and the Industrial Index 10.28 points to 3,179.09.

The FBM Emas Index lost 34.34 points to 12,647.61, the FBMT100 Index 34.5 points to 12,307.42, the FBM Ace 6.49 points to 6,742.09, and the FBM 70 21.42 points to 13,790.14.

Losers outpaced gainers 98 to 110 while 164 counters were unchanged, 1,247 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 147.33 million shares worth RM61.95 million.

Among actives, Insas gained 4 sen to RM1.22, R&A Telecommunication added 1.5 sen to 6.5 sen while MAS was flat at 23.5 sen.

As for heavyweights, TNB rose 6 sen to RM11.98 and Sime Darby added 2 sen to RM9.25. Maybank slipped 3 sen to RM9.61, CIMB shed 1 sen to RM7.10 and Axiata lost 4 sen to RM6.54. — Bernama