KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower as sentiments turned cautious ahead of the two-day United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting which starts tomorrow, with many expecting another rate hike.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 0.22 of-a-point to 1,413.30 from 1,413.52 at Friday’s close.

The key index opened 0.84 points lower at 1,412.68.

The broader market was also negative as decliners edged past advancers 142 to 132, while 271 counters were unchanged, 1,748 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 203.29 million units worth RM58.93 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng told Bernama that he expects to see muted trading ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting, with market players expecting to see another rate hike by the US Fed.

He said the plantation stocks remained as investors’ favourite, given the strong crude palm oil price that rose above RM4,000 per tonne.

“For today, we remain cautiously optimistic that accumulation on blue chips would persist, thus expect the index to hover within the 1,410-1,420 range with interest possibly centred on the Telco-related stocks.

“Hopefully, the re-emergence of foreign funds will instigate the return of retailers that have been less than desired thus far,” he added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.79, Tenaga Nasional rose four sen to RM9.15 and Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM6.53, while Public Bank was flat at RM3.98 and CIMB declined three sen to RM5.27.

Of the actives, Classita Holdings and AHB Holdings inched up half-a-sen each to 17 sen and 15 sen respectively, and Jentayu Sustainable expanded eight sen to RM1.07, while Kumpulan Jetson dropped two sen to 21.5 sen and Advance Synergy reduced half-a-sen to 16.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 3.03 points to 10,451.82, the FBMT 100 Index was 2.29 points better at 10,133.65, the FBM 70 Index perked 19.44 points to 13,895.73 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 8.31 points to 10,755.27, while the FBM ACE Index slid 4.37 points to 5,325.22.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index rose 1.65 points to 819.37 and the Industrial Products and Services Index improved 0.07 of-a-point to 162.93, while the Financial Services Index eased 10.31 points to 15,718.19 and the Plantation Index weakened 2.59 points to 7,085.00. — Bernama