KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower this morning, as investors’ risk appetite was hurt by weak market sentiment, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 4.53 points or0.25 per cent to 1,772.29, after opening 3.15 points easier at 1,773.65.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local bourse may tread towards its immediate support level of 1,750 points as the market further digested news that the World Bank lowered Malaysia’s 2013 and 2014 Gross Domestic Product growth forecast.
In its East Asia Pacific Economic Update Report, the World Bank downgraded 2013 and 2014’s forecast by 0.8 percentage point to 4.3 per cent and by 0.6 percentage point to 4.8 per cent, respectively.
HwangDBS Vickers research, in a note, also said the decline on Bursa was in line with overnight major US equity indices which were down between 0.9 per cent and 1.0 per cent at the closing bell.
This was due to concerns regarding the US government shutdown and fears that the debt ceiling may not be raised, it said.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 35.52 points to 16,538.91, the Industrial Index eased 7.87 points to 3,052.95 and the Plantation Index lost 36.06 points to 8,327.9.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 29.09 points to 12,335.21, the FBM100 Index eased 29.65 points to 2,074.22 and the FBM 70 erased 29.56 points to 14,109.11.
However, the FBM Ace increased 4.29 points to 5,336.57.
Losers led gainers 94 to 67, with 124 counters were unchanged, 1,326 untraded and 15 others were suspended.
Volume was thin at 45.839 million shares worth RM13.914 million.
Among actives, INS Bioscience, Silver Bird and XOX were all flat this morning at two sen, 12 sen and 14.5 sen, respectively.
Heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM6.82 while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.54.
Meanwhile, Maybank slipped two sen to RM9.87, Axiata Group lost four sen to RM6.87 and CIMB shed one sen to RM7.46. — Bernama
