KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Bursa Malaysia was almost flat at the opening today as traders were cautious amid the weaker Wall Street performance, analysts said.
The benchmark index opened 4.02 points better at 1,455.50 from Wednesday's close of 1,451.48, but retracted to 1,452.43 at 9.05am.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 119 to 97, while 177 counters were unchanged, 1,889 untraded and 65 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 93.22 million units worth RM50.15 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said major indices on the Wall Street struggled to make a significant rebound, with sentiments remaining jittery due to recession fears.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 82.32 points, S&P 500 eased by 2.72 points and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 3.65 points, while the United States (US) Treasury 10-year yield edged lower to 3.09 per cent.
Back home, he said that trading on the local bourse is expected to stay wary today due to the lack of catalysts.
“As such, we expect the key index to move within the 1,440-1,460 range," Thong told Bernama.
He noted that crude palm oil price had eased to RM5,080 per tonne due to weaker exports data, and Brent crude also ended lower at US$116 per barrel on news that the US may release more oil from its stockpile.
Among the heavyweights, Hartalega and Sime Darby Plantation rose eight sen each to RM3.03 and RM4.41, respectively, Hong Leong Financial Group added three sen to RM18.90, MRDIY eased two sen to RM2.03, Top Glove shed one sen to RM1.11, Maybank declined seven sen to RM8.58 and Telekom Malaysia fell three sen to RM5.20.
Of the actives, Cypark weakened three sen to 35 sen, Reach Energy was flat at 5.5 sen, MN Holdings slid one sen to 22 sen and Dagang Nexchange eased half-a-sen to 78.5 sen.
On the index board, FBM Emas Index rose by 5.99 points to 10,355.66, FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 17.55 points to 10,556.80, FBM 70 was 5.46 points higher at 12,508.53, FBM ACE contracted 17.49 points to 4,822.60, and FBMT 100 Index perked 6.09 points to 10,093.98.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 20.29 points to 16,042.58, while the Plantation Index was up 46.67 points to 7,017.31, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.83 of-a-point stronger at 182.11. — Bernama
