KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on lack of demand for local stocks.
At 9.26am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 7.01 points easier at 1,715.46 from yesterday’s close of 1,722.47.
The index opened 5.30 points lower at 1,717.17.
Market breath was negative as decliners outpaced gainers 217 to 185 with 290 counters unchanged, 1,022 untraded and 29 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 457.63 million shares worth RM183.77 million.
A dealer said Bursa Malaysia was trading lower today in tandem with almost all Asian stock markets, dragged by lower oil prices, to below US$48 per barrel.
“Oil prices declined after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said global crude stocks had risen and this has affected Malaysia as an oil exporting country,” the dealer said.
Petronas-related stocks such as Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan saw their share prices shed two sen and 14 sen to RM19.76 and RM23.78, respectively.
Petronas Chemicals, however, perked one sen to RM7.31.
The national oil company yesterday reported that revenue in 2016 dipped 17 per cent to RM204.9 billion from RM247.7 billion recorded in 2015.
The FBM Emas Index fell 38.33 points to 12,136.81, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 40.47 points to 11,792.54 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 39.08 points lower at 12,531.44.
The FBM 70 dropped 19.34 points to 14,124.31 but the FBM Ace was 18.36 points higher at 5,391.01.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 19.38 points to 8,092.27, Finance Index gave up 61.26 points to 15,421.22 and the Industrial Index inched down 7.34 points to 3,235.25.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga fell six sen each to RM8.79 and RM13.68, respectively, while Public Bank eased two sen to RM19.82 and Sime Darby erased three sen to RM9.10.
Actively-traded stocks included Borneo Oil which was up by half-a-sen at 18.5 sen, Eka Noodles gained 1.5 sen to 9.5 sen and Dagang Nexchange and Bio Osmo were flat at 41.5 sen and 10 sen, respectively. — Bernama
