KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower today in line with the easier Asian markets, as buying sentiment was dampened by falling crude oil prices after the producers' meeting in Doha ended without a deal on production freeze.

At 9.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.6 points lower at 1,721.39, compared with Friday's close of 1,727.99.

It opened 8.2 points lower at 1,719.79.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 142 to 106, with 163 counters unchanged, 1,312 untraded and 10 others were suspended.

Turnover amounted to 138.64 million shares worth RM43.66 million.  

A dealer said Asian markets were off to a bad start this morning considering the clear relationship between the oil price and equities.

International benchmark, Brent crude futures, declined by about 5.2 per cent to US$40.86 while US crude fell 5.5 per cent to US$38.15.

Elsewhere, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.6 per cent lower in early trade while the Nikkei stock index fell 3.2 per cent.

On the local front, MISC, which was down a sen to RM8.81, led the losers' list, followed by Comintel, which eased half-a-sen to 75.5 sen while Lien Hoe was unchanged at 25 sen.

Of the top gainers, Ajinomoto added 21 sen to RM8.99, Kossan rose 15 sen to RM6.48 and Sam Engineering increased nine sen to RM6.20.

Among heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM9.14 while TNB and Public Bank both declined two sen each to RM14.38 and RM19.18, respectively.

Of the actives, Dnone added 1.5 sen to 22 sen, while AirAsia X and Iris gained a sen each to 35.5 sen and 16.5 sen, respectively.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 52.87 points weaker at 11,944.2, FBMT100 Index decreased 39.21 points to 11,654 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 53.52 points to 12,486.24.

The FBM Ace increased 6.14 points to 5,728.56 but the FBM 70 was 25.02 points weaker at 13,301.02.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index contracted 41.58 points to 14,993.12, Plantation Index fell 33.13 points to 7,752.12 and the Industrial Index lost 26.44 points to 3,264.53. — Bernama