KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Bursa Malaysia extended downtrend to opened easier this morning, dragged down by selling in key heavyweights amid mixed regional peers’ performance, dealers said.

At 9.09am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 1.92 points to 1,573.46 compared with 1,575.38 at Wednesday’s close.

The barometre index opened 0.59 points weaker at 1,574.79.

On the broader market, there were 280 gainers and 270 losers, 291 counters were unchanged, 1,172 untraded and 25 others suspended.

Trading volume stood at 543.36 million shares worth RM401.47 million.

Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday for the Awal Muharram celebration.

Maybank Investment Bank remisier Jeffry Azizi Jaafar said following the downtrend recorded on Wednesday, Bursa would likely engage in a short-term consolidation today within FBMKLCI to range between 1,500 and 1,600.

"(Bursa will trade) amid local political uncertainty, a weak corporate earnings season, increasing numbers of new Covid-19 cases and geopolitical tensions between the United States and China,” he told Bernama.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell 12 sen to RM7.52, Top Glove decreased 24 sen to RM26.90, Tenaga shed four sen to RM10.96, while Hartalega and Petronas Chemicals contracted 12 sen each to RM17.08 and RM6.08, respectively.

However, Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM17.58.

Among actives, Solution bagged 17.5 sen to 46.5 sen, XOX inched up half-a-sen to 20 sen, Systech gained three sen to 25.5 sen, and Fintec added one sen to 14 sen.

Genting Malaysia lost seven sen to RM2.23 and Hubline slipped half-a-sen to 6.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 14.89 points to 11,283.35, the FBMT 100 Index declined 14.6 points to 11,098.07, and the FBM 70 lost 23.31 points to 14,517.7.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index added 1.62 points to 13,281.98 and the FBM ACE bagged 18.37 points to 10,299.89.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 37.87 points to 13,079.82, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 0.6 of-a-point to 141.28, but the Plantation Index chalked up 78.57 points to 7,099.11. — Bernama