KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) on Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower in early trading this morning due to low demand owing to lack of fresh catalyst, a dealer said.
At 9:20 am, the barometer index stood at 1,880.72 points, down 0.44 of a point, after opening 0.67 of a point higher at 1,881.83.
Losses were mostly spotted in blue chips and selected heavyweights, with United Plantation Bhd topping the list, which saw its shares falling 40 sen to RM27.30.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 7.23 points to 17,110.65, but the Industrial Index eased 5.38 points to 3,196.57 and the Plantation Index fell 13.39 points to 9,317.24.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 3.52 points to 12,972.44, the FBMT100 Index trimmed 3.88 points to 12,621.86, the FBM 70 lost 8.02 points to 13,985.52, but the FBM Ace garnered 12.31 points to 6,692.7.
Losers outpaced gainers 161 to 148, while 206 counters were unchanged, 1,111 untraded and 23 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 263.01 million shares worth RM115.31 million.
Of the heavyweights, CIMB gained two sen to RM7.40, but Public Bank eased two sen to RM19.84, TNB lost six sen to RM12.22, and Sime Darby declined five sen to RM9.64.
Both Maybank and Axiata were flat at RM9.97 and RM6.95, respectively.
Among actives, MAS inched up half-a-sen to 17 sen, AirAsia X gained 1.5 sen to 85.5 sen, while 1Utopia was flat at 6.5 sen. — Bernama
