KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower in early trading today despite a slightly better overnight performance posted on Wall Street, dealers said.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,807.79, up 0.63 of a point, after opening 2.21 points lower at 1,806.21.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said regional equity markets are expected to be wobbly in view of concerns over premature tapering of the quantitative easing programme by the US Federal Reserve.
Essentially, sentiment in Asia may still be restrained although leading stock indices on Wall Street ended up between 0.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent last night, the research firm said in a note today.
On the local front, a mixture of cautious mood and profit-taking activity could cap Bursa performance for the time being.
“The benchmark FBM KLCI will probably move sideways with a marginal downward bias ahead.
“Its key support line is presently seen at the psychological mark of 1,800,” said HwangDBS.
On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index chalked up 34.42 points to 8,446.61, the Industrial Index added 0.62 of a point to 3,071.43, but the Finance Index fell 23.42 points to 17,351.43.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 0.79 of a point to 12,604.67, the FBM100 Index trimmed 1.07 points to 12,341.68, but the FBM 70 Index improved 12.14 points to 14,527.35 and the FBM ACE Index earned 10.14 points to 5,057.72.
Gainers slightly outnumbered losers by 95 to 83, with 138 counters unchanged, 1,283 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 56.144 million shares worth RM38.691 million.
Among actives, Minetech Resources gained two sen to 19 sen, Farm Best added one sen to 94.5 sen while IRIS Corp was flat at 20.5 sen.
Among heavyweights, both Maybank and Axiata Group were flat at RM10.72 and RM6.83, respectively, but CIMB shed two sen to RM8.54, Sime Darby slipped three sen to RM9.51 and Maxis lost four sen to RM7.06. — Bernama
