KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 ― Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses to open lower today, in line with weaker overnight Wall Street performance ahead of congressional testimony from United States Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 4.56 points to 1,532.42 from yesterday’s close of 1,536.98.

The benchmark index opened 4.53 points lower at 1,532.45.

On the broader market, the sentiment was negative with decliners surpassing gainers 228 versus 138, while 268 counters were unchanged, 1629 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 178.11 million units worth RM132.22 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said traders will be monitoring Powell’s speech closely later tonight to have a fresh lead on the market.

Besides, Wall Street ended lower dragged by Apple after a report stated that iPhone sales in China plunged in the first six weeks of this year, it said.

"Meanwhile traders will be eyeing the manufacturing data and nonfarm payroll data this week,” it said.

Back home, it expects traders to focus on commodities segments such as oil and gas, gold and plantation sectors as their underlying commodities prices were traded higher for the session.

"Under this cautious environment, we reckon traders to look for opportunities within companies with solid balance sheets and high dividend yield. Meanwhile, we like selected banking, construction and property stocks,” it added.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank declined three sen to RM9.60, CIMB dropped eight sen to RM6.45, Public Bank was two sen lower at RM4.30, Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM11.16 while Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM6.89.

Among the actives, Genting added 12 sen to RM5.01, VSolar Group increased 1.5 sen to 12 sen, Master Tec Group inched up 2.5 sen to 82.5 sen, while TWL Holdings and Mag Holdings were unchanged at 3.5 sen and 18.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 30.60 points lower at 11,366.41, the FBMT 100 Index shed 30.32 points to 11,034.97, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 10.99 points to 11,374.10, the FBM 70 Index shed 31.71 points to 15,331.70 while the FBM ACE Index edged up 5.25 points to 4,704.41.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 103.381 points to 17,186.75, the Energy Index shrunk by 8.61 points to 898.66, the Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 0.52 of-a-point to 173.95 while the Plantation Index gained 5.91 points to 7,184.20. ― Bernama