KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Bursa Malaysia was easier at today’s opening in line with its Asian peers, dealers said.

At 9.17 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.17 point lower at 1,709.59, after opening 1.14 points easier at 1,708.62.  A dealer said most Asian bourses were trading downwards, including Japan’s Nikkei, which saw its shares fall to a two-week low yesterday. This followed the decline on Wall Street and the Chinese exchange coupled with weaker commodity prices.

“The US Federal Reserve meeting which begins today also generated some negative sentiment, causing investors to remain on the sidelines,” the dealer said.

The Fed is expected to provide some clues on raising interest rates at the meeting.

Meanwhile, on the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 3.85 points to 11,823.56, the FBMT100 Index slid 3.8 points to 11,492.70 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 16.46 points to 12,297.53.

The FBM Ace was down 29.35 points to 6,413.63 and the FBM 70 inched down 14.03 points to 12,817.34.

On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index eased 4.03 points to 7,375.17 and the Industrial Index lost 24.36 points to 3,152.68.But, the Finance Index rose 7.65 points to 15,395.51.

Losers led gainers 210 to 104, while 165 counters remained unchanged, 1,346 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 186 million shares worth RM139 million.  Among actives, Sunway Construction, which made its debut today on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia, rose six sen to RM1.26, iDimension added one sen to 13.5 sen.

Ikhmas Jaya fell one sen to 81 sen, while The Media Shoppe was flat at six sen.

For heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM9.16 and RM18.90, respectively, while TNB gained two sen to RM12.26 and Sime Darby was seven sen lower at RM8.42. — Bernama