KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 ― Bursa Malaysia extended losses from last week to open lower today, pressured by continued profit taking in selected heavyweights, dealers said.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.62 points to 1,636.28 after opening 1.98 points easier at 1,641.92.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 201 to 83, with 141 counters unchanged, 1,329 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 109.76 million shares worth RM50.89 million.
Despite trading weaker, RHB Retail Research believes investors will remain in the market as buying interest is still good.
“After rebounding above the 1,648 points level on Dec 17, the FBM KLCI put on a weak performance during last Friday's session. Nevertheless, we deem this fall as not significant yet, as the index is still trading steadily above the 1,607.50 points mark.
“Technically, we view the local index as merely taking a breather after rebounding by around 50 points over the last one week. As such, we suggest for traders to maintain long positions,” it said in a research note today.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM8.28 and RM7 respectively, while TNB slipped four sen to RM12.96 and Public Bank declined six sen to RM18.26.
Among actives, Comintel Corp rose nine sen to 73 sen, SMTrack earned half-a-sen to 12.5 sen, Instacom was flat at 27.5 sen, while XOX eased half-a-sen to 20 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 38.75 points to 11,445.67, the FBMT100 Index declined 39.01 points to 11,119.23 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 38.33 points to 12,352.72.
The FBM Ace shed 56.62 points to 6,277.25, but the FBM 70 improved 0.71 of a point to 12,839.78.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index declined 39.21 points to 14,000.250, as the Industrial Index contracted 24.15 points to 3,170.64. The Plantation Index, however, gained 12.27 points to 7,426.26. ― Bernama
