KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 — Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower this morning as the market awaits fresh catalyst to push the equity market forward pending this month’s review of the local government bond’s position in the FTSE Russel World Government Bond Index.
At 9.13am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined a marginal 0.83 of-a-point to 1,592.10 from 1,592.93 yesterday.
The index opened 0.57 points higher at 1,593.50.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 142 to 103, while 175 counters were unchanged, 1,565 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 122.91 million shares worth RM34.36 million.
Malacca Securities in its equity note today said the key index drifted longer than expected which had put the support level of 1,590 under threat.
“If this continues, it could breach the next support and slide to 1,580. The resistances remain at the 1,600 and 1,610 levels,” it said.
It also noted that the the lower liners and broader market shares have also remained sideways and this trend could be extended due to the absence of fresh buying interest.
“With stocks find it hard to get ahead, sentiments are turning increasingly frail and morbid with little inkling of upsides to reverse the indifferent trend as yet. As a result, we continue to think that the sideway-to-lower trend is set to continue over the near term,” it said.
Of heavyweights, Maybank was down five sen to RM8.67, Petronas Chemical declined 10 sen to RM7.44, Tenaga Nasional, IHH and Axiata all dipped two sen to RM13.62, RM5.67 and RM4.27 respectively.
As for the actives, Eduspec shed one sen to 4.5 sen, Bumi Armada and MNC Wireless both declined half-a-sen to 33.5 sen and 11 sen respectively while Jags, Sapura Energy and Green Packet all gained half-a-sen to four sen, 29 sen and 70 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 2.38 points to 11,250.04, the FBMT 100 Index erased 3.99 points to 11,081.84 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 0.44 of-a-point to 11,774.25.
The FBM 70 appreciated 24.80 point to 13,957.35 while the FBM Ace rose 1.21 points to 4,573.49.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index reduced 18.52 points to 15,434.89, the Plantation Index recovered 3.70 points to 6,726.15 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.41 of-a-point weaker at 152.84. — Bernama
