Bursa Malaysia opens broadly lower on weak sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Bursa Malaysia opened broadly lower today, giving up last week’s gains amid weaker sentiment as the market took cue from the lower closing on Wall Street.

At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 16.25 points or 1.02 per cent to 1,572.8 from Friday’s close of 1,589.05.

The index opened 8.54 points easier at 1,580.51.

Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 394 to 112, while 282 counters were unchanged, 1,409 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 388.61 million units worth RM169.06 million.

Public Investment Bank Bhd, in a note, said the FBM KLCI might open lower today as stocks on Wall Street had their worst week in nearly four months after comments from the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers that signalled the central bank was acutely aware of budding inflationary pressures.

The downtrend followed comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday that investors took as a signal that the US central bank would act to tame inflation and that policymakers were not solely focused on aiding the country’s hard-hit labour market.

Fed policymakers projected that interest rates would rise from record-low levels as soon as 2023 compared with their earlier forecast of 2024.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said investors might continue to stay defensive today amid the ongoing battle of the Covid-19 health pandemic and the recent political developments.

Nevertheless, the downside risks might be cushioned by the rising daily vaccination rate as the government targets to achieve 80 per cent herd immunity by the third quarter of this year.

“Following the positive development on the daily vaccination rate in the country, investors may look out for stocks under the recovery theme sectors, such as consumers, financial services, property and shipping industries.

“Besides, we may see some buying interest in the energy sector following the recent decline. Also, we expect buying momentum to sustain in selected technology stocks,” it said in a note today.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI was expected to trade higher within a range of 1,585 to 1,600 points this week, driven by the progress of Covid-19 vaccinations in the country and the expectation of positive inflation data, among others.

“The number of daily vaccination doses administered remained above 200,000 from Tuesday to Thursday last week, giving hope that 80 per cent of Malaysia’s population will be vaccinated by the end of 2021.

“With regard to economic data, Malaysia will be releasing the May data on inflation which may continue to rise on a year-on-year basis due to a low base effect from last year,” he told Bernama.

In another development, the constituents changes following the semi-annual review of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Series will be taking effect today.

Among the changes is the inclusion of home improvement retailer MR DIY Group (M) Bhd as one of the 30 constituents of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, replacing rubber glove maker Supermax Corporation Bhd.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and PetChem eased four sen each to RM8.16 and RM7.96 respectively, Public Bank shed two sen to RM4.18, Tenaga fell 36 sen to RM10.08, IHH slipped one sen to RM5.85 and CIMB trimmed three sen to RM4.57.

Among the actives, Key Alliance, Tanco and Lambo were flat at 3.5 sen, 15 sen and 1.5 sen respectively, Focus inched down half-a-sen to 3.5 sen, and MQ Technology added one sen to 9.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 95.29 points to 11,489.65, the FBMT 100 Index fell 95.08 points to 11,181.25, the FBM ACE erased 74.53 points to 7,633.17, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 126.08 points to 12,652.14 and the FBM 70 slid 46.88 points to 14,969.72.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 85.35 points to 15,228.35, the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 1.77 points to 190.24, and the Plantation Index reduced 58.87 points to 6,622.68. — Bernama