KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on the absence of investors due to the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays amid cautious sentiments of the US Federal Reserve tapering its economic stimulus bond-buying programme before year-end, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 1.15 points to 1,778.17, after opening 0.43 of a point higher at 1,779.75.
A dealer said more downside is likely for the benchmark FBM KLCI this week as various technical indicators are poised to trigger sell signals amid bearish near-term momentum.
“While blue chips may congest with downward bias given the bearish technical indications, lower liners, especially small caps and SPACs in the oil and gas sector, should stay active to attract keen rotational speculative retail interest,” he said.
On the scoreboard, the Plantation index fell 22.85 points to 8,288.75 and the Finance index declined 18.07 points to 16,882.04.
The Industrial Index, however, gained 3.81 points to 3,014.23.
The FBM Emas Index eased 4.939 points to 12,403.53, the FBM100 Index erased 4.221 points to 12,140.35, but the FBM 70 Index rose 9.78 points to 14,294.07.
Gainers outpaced losers 126 to 71, with 104 counters unchanged, 1,272 untraded and 11 others were suspended.
Turnover totalled 81.11 million shares worth RM59.24 million.
Among actives, Sona Petroleum and Instacom earned half-a-sen each to 45.5 sen and 39 sen, respectively, Astral Supreme gained one sen to 23 sen, Eastland Equity added two sen to 60 sen while OSK was unchanged at RM1.68.
Heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB lost two sen each to RM10.38 and RM7.84, respectively, while Axiata slipped one sen to RM6.84.
Sime Darby and Maxis was unchanged at RM9.50 and RM7.23, respectively. — Bernama
