KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower today in line with regional markets and weighed down by selling activities in heavyweights.

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) trimmed 15.96 points to 1,747.61, after opening 12.66 points weaker at 1,750.91 against Wednesday's close of 1,763.57.

Maybank Investment Bank expects the market to remain lacklustre today as investors may choose to stay sidelined ahead of the Hari Raya holiday and also take a step back from the hawkish statement by the US Federal Reserve.

“Technically, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade between 1,740 and 1,780 today. Downside supports are 1,740 and 1,709,” it said in a statement today.

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The Fed had raised its interest rates by a quarter-percentage point to a range between 1.75 per cent and 2.0 per cent at its recent policy meeting. The central bank also signalled two additional hikes this year.

Bursa Malaysia will trade half-day today and close tomorrow in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 164 to 79, while 151 counters were unchanged, 1,517 untraded and 23 others suspended.

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Turnover stood at 85.28 million shares worth RM56.83 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank went down four sen to RM9.56, Public Bank lost 30 sen to RM23.78, TNB was easier by eight sen at RM14.32, Petronas Chemicals decreased five sen to RM8.29, CIMB inched down one sen to RM6.07 and Maxis fell seven sen to RM5.70.

Of the actives, Fintech Global edged up half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, Priceworth International added 1.5 sen to 25 sen, Iris Corp and Netx Holdings were flat at 13 sen and 2.5 sen respectively, while Sapura Energy inched down half-a-sen to 64 sen and YTL Corp eased three sen to RM1.03.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index went down 0.35 per cent to 3,380.49, Japan's Nikkei slid 0.40 per cent to 22,875.06 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng weakened 1.22 per cent 30,725.15.

Bursa Malaysia's FBM Emas Index shed 104.11 points to 12,288.04, the FBMT100 Index declined 97.55 points to 12,087.49 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 113.25 points to 12,355.66.

The FBM 70 decreased 75.65 points to 14,804.24 but the FBM Ace gained 4.43 points to 5,238.9.

Sectorwise, the Industrial Index discounted 30.58 points to 3,157.61, the Finance Index dipped 112.31 points to 17,422.27 and the Plantation Index slipped 67.80 points to 7,670.2. — Bernama