KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 ― Bursa Malaysia extended last week downtrend momentum to open easier today, as weak market sentiment continue to dampen buying interest.

At 9.06am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 8.83 points to 1353.76 from 1,357.5 at Friday’s close.

The key index, however, opened 0.44 of-a-point better at 1,357.94.

Banking stocks were mostly down with Maybank dragging the composite index down by 2.048 points after falling 10 sen to RM7.40, Public Bank lost 18 sen to RM15.70, Hong Leong Bank erased 14 sen to RM13.20, CIMB slipped two sen to RM3.50 and Hong Leong Financial declined six sen to RM12.60.

Market breadth, losers slightly outnumbered gainers 197 to 110, while 211 counters were unchanged, 1,400 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 221.16 million worth RM75.76 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, in a note, expects the FBM KLCI might experience a pullback with the 1,400 level continue to serve as the immediate resistance.

“With economic situation unlikely to improve anytime soon, the weakness might trigger a pullback on the FBM KLCI which chalked in hefty gains over the past couple of weeks,” the research firm said.

It said the key index closed negatively last Friday following the two-week extension of the movement control order and this might cause economic activities disruption to prolong.

Consequently, the move would also weigh on Malaysia's economic growth, but Malacca Securities see additional stimulus measures should the situation turn sour.

Other heavyweights, Tenaga rose four sen to RM12.08, Maxis bagged two sen to RM5.18, Petronas Chemicals gave up three sen for RM4.79 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.09.

Of the actives, Minetec and Hibiscus gained 1.5 sen each to 22 sen and 51 sen respectively, Sapura Energy and Bumi Armada added half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and 17.5 sen respectively, while Alam Maritim was flat at 7.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 27.91 points to 9,364.14, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 27.12 points to 9,261.54, and the FBM 70 decreased 35.81 points to 10,978.94.

 The FBM Emas Shariah Index, however, added 1.18 points to 10,364.29 while the FBM Ace rose 13.98 points to 4,031.01.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.43 of-a-point to 109.07, the Financial Services Index fell 106.88 points to 12,172.03 and the Plantation Index slipped 0.81 of-a-point to 6,246.84. ― Bernama