KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning, reversing yesterday's gains with profit-taking activities and the mixed performance of regional peers dampened the local bourse despite stronger overnight performance on Wall Street.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 7.13 point weaker at 1,597.17 against yesterday's close of 1,604.30.
The index opened 4.73 points lower at 1,599.57.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 110 to 103 with 144 counters unchanged, 1,614 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 122.47 million units worth RM36.21 million.
In a research note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it still see the overall market conditions as cautious, undermined by the lack of fresh impetuses from both local and foreign sources as market players awaited for more developments in the US-China trade spat and the ongoing Federal Open Market Committee meeting that could see further cuts in the US interest rates.
“Back home, we think that oil and gas (O&G) stocks could retreat slightly after oil prices slipped as fears of a supply shortage ebbed.
“Therefore, we still think that the mixed market condition will prevail and this could see the key index making little headway,”it said adding that the near term supports are at the 1,600 and 1,590 levels, while the resistances are at 1,610 and 1,620 respectively.
The research house said the lower liners and broader market shares have also remained largely indifferent of late and with still few catalysts, there likely would be a range-bound trend for now as fresh buying interest is still lacking.
Among the top losers was Hong Leong Financial Group which contracted 14 sen to RM16.36.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata were flat at RM8.65 and RM4.27 respectively, Public Bank fell two sen to RM20.14, TNB deducted four sen to RM13.58, Petronas Chemicals eased 11 sen to RM7.66 while Nestle rose 40 sen to RM147.40.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index decreased 33.77 points to 11,287.92, the FBMT 100 Index was 37.79 points weaker at 11,117.44 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 6.41 points to 11,857.35.
The FBM Ace went up 6.65 points to 4,539.62 and the FBM 70 rose 1.65 points to 13,981.10.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 148.27 points to 15,407.05 and the Plantation Index decreased 7.69 points to 6,826.50 while the Industrial Products and Services lost 0.70 of a point to 154.44. — Bernama
