KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower taking the cue from Wall Street’s weaker overnight performance which stumbled in late trade, giving up earlier gains as a selloff in tech shares continued.
Investors were also assessing the outlook for the economy amid a slowing down in the number of new Covid-19 cases and a lack of progress toward additional coronavirus relief package from Washington, a dealer said.
At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.00 points to 1,557.74 from yesterday's close of 1,564.74.
The key index opened 5.92 points lower at 1,558.82.
Market breadth was negative, with losers leading gainers 385 to 157, while 264 counters were unchanged, 1,180 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Trading volume stood at 1.39 billion shares worth RM383.05 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd in a note said the weakness on Wall Street might permeate to stocks across Bursa Malaysia.
“With the lack of fresh impetus, we think that the consolidation may continue to be a feature, while the impending batch of corporate earnings may see any gains to be tempered by quick profit-taking activities.
“At the same time, we think the rotational play among the lower liners will keep trading activities at an elevated level,” it said.
For sector in focus, the firm said it continued to favour the energy sector following the Brent oil prices attempt to break above the US$45 (RM188) a barrel level.
Meanwhile, the pullback in healthcare stocks is deemed to be healthy for investors to digest their recent gains before returning into the scene again in the foreseeable future, it added.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM7.52, Public Bank added two sen to RM16.94, Top Glove dropped RM1.00 to RM26.30, Hartalega shed 66 sen to RM17.64 while Tenaga was flat at RM11.00.
Of the most active, Sapura Energy and Borneo Oil eased half-a-sen each to 14 sen and seven sen respectively, AT Systematization shed 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen, Kanger International added one sen to 30 sen while Eduspec was flat at two sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 62.40 points to 11,204.16, the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 117.13 points lower at 13,197.32 and the FBMT 100 Index declined 60.30 points to 11,017.04.
The FBM 70 fell 121.54 points to 14,528.66 and the FBM ACE dropped 311.17 points to 10,329.01.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index shed 6.12 points to 6,973.42, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.82 point to 138.49 but the Financial Services Index was up14.02 points at 12,956.53. — Bernama
