KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia opened lower today, on worries over a possible US interest rates hike under newly-elected President, Donald Trump.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 7.93 points to 1,626.26 from last Friday’s close of 1,634.19, after opening 5.76 points easier at 1,628.43.
Gainers led losers 112 to 90, while 139 counters remained unchanged, 1,340 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 61.75 million shares worth RM26.5 million.
A dealer said the benchmark index underwent a sell-down last Friday due to an outflow of foreign funds from emerging markets, including Malaysia, pressuring the ringgit to fall to a multi-month low level of RM4.34 against the greenback.
“The underlying index is currently trading along a short-term downtrend channel, and has broken down from its key support-turned-resistance level of 1,640 last Friday,” he added.
The FBM Emas Index declined 40.76 points to 11,463.49, the FBMT100 Index slipped 42.37 points to 11,172.59 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 51.02 points to 12,052.89.
The FBM 70 declined 6.62 points to 13,343.53, but the FBM Ace rose 7.42 points to 4,972.01.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 10.79 points better at 7,770.81, the Finance Index lost 38.28 points to 14,244.85 and the Industrial Index lost 30.53 points to 3,078.95.
Of the heavyweights, TNB and Petronas Chemicals lost four sen to RM14.16 and RM6.77 respectively, Maybank eased three sen to RM7.77 and Public Bank was flat at RM19.64.
Of the actives, RGB added half-a-sen to 23.5 sen, Borneo Oil was unchanged at 16 sen, and Hibiscus Petroleum was half-a-sen lower at 27.5 sen. — Bernama
