KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower in early session today, brought down by weak sentiment following the MH17 incident, a dealer said.
At 10.18 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.79 points easier at 1,870.18 points.
The Malaysia Airline's (MAS) plane was shot down on July 17 in the Ukraine-Russia border, pulling risk appetite sideways despite the generally upbeat flow of US corporate earnings anticipated to be released this week.
"Investors are cautious with the growing geopolitical developments over the downing of the MAS flight which continues to be in focus," the dealer added.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 27.57 points to 17,479.42 but the Plantation Index fell 31.07 points to 8,981.76 and the Industrial Index erased 18.57 points to 3,220.46. The FBM Emas Index eased 7.76 points to 13,054.98, FBMT100 Index declined 8.25 points to 12,645.11 but FBM Ace rose 4.71 points to 6,856.54 and the FBM 70 increased 12.18 points to 14,357.9.
Losers led gainers 285 to 268 with 1,090 counters unchanged.
Turnover stood at 879.093 million shares worth RM478.109 million.
MAS' share was the most active stock this morning, declining half-a-sen to 19.5 sen.
Of heavyweights, Maybank and TNB perked two sen each to RM9.93 and RM12.30, respectively, Public Bank rose eight sen to RM20.10, CIMB added one sen to RM6.96 but Axiata slipped three sen to RM6.87. — Bernama
