KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Bursa Malaysia resumed weak trading on Monday amid lack of fresh catalysts.
At 9.35am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.90 points to 1,552.43 from 1,555.33 at Friday’s close.
The index opened 1.53 points lower at 1,553.80.
On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 317 to 194, while 328 counters were unchanged, 1,413 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 539.83 million units worth RM296.93 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, in a research note, believes that technology stocks might perform a technical rebound at least in near term, given the mild rebound in Nasdaq last Friday.
The brokerage said investors might also focus on China’s economic data such as the fourth quarter of 2021 economic growth and unemployment rate, which would be released today, as well as Bank Negara Malaysia’s interest rate decision this week.
Commodity-wise, crude palm oil price fell below RM5,000, while crude oil price extended its uptrend.
“Given Brent oil price has surpassed the US$86 level, we expect oil and gas stocks to trade actively higher in the near term. Investors may focus on banking counters ahead of the interest rate decision by Bank Negara Malaysia this week,” said Malacca Securities.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank and CIMB both added one sen to RM4.21 and RM5.55, respectively, TNB gained three sen to RM9.07, while Maybank fell two sen to RM8.44, Petronas Chemicals declined three sen to RM9.06 and IHH Healthcare shed four sen to RM6.54.
Of the actives, Kanger International edged up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, Avillion was flat at 10.5 sen, while SMTrack decreased two sen to 27 sen, AirAsia down 2.5 sen to 59.5 sen, and MQ Technology inched down half-a-sen to 7.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 19.0 points weaker at 11,159.52, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 24.90 points to 11,855.91, the FBM 70 trimmed 16.97 points to 13,835.60, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 18.70 points to 10,866.95, and the FBM ACE slipped 34.27 points to 6,245.36.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.53 of-a-point weaker at 202.43, the Financial Services Index fell 15.27 points to 16,136.81, and the Plantation Index dropped 26.29 points to 6,735.26. — Bernama
