KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning on cautious sentiment after Wall Street’s weak performance on Friday and ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) meeting on interest rates this Wednesday, said an analyst.

At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.49 points to 1,454.54 from Friday’s close of 1,459.03. The index opened 2.07 points lower at 1,456.96.

On the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 219 to 192 while 283 counters were unchanged, 1,679 untraded and 23 suspended.

Turnover stood at 401.38 million units worth RM174.01 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said although it is widely expected that the Fed would hold interest rates for now, the recent headline inflationary figures from the United States still showed a slight expansion, indicating that interest rates would likely stay higher for longer.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) Average lost 289 points while the Nasdaq declined by 218 points as the US 10-year yield inched higher to 4.34 per cent.

“On the local front, the FBM KLCI finally tested the 1,460 mark or a six-month high attributed to persistent accumulations by foreign funds.

“We believe this level should be breached anytime soon as the valuation of local blue chips remains low,” he told Bernama.

Despite the headwinds from Wall Street, Thong expects the index to continue with its upward trajectory and hover between the 1,460 and 1,470 range today.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank lost three sen to RM8.88, Public Bank erased two sen to RM4.17, CIMB eased one sen to RM5.77 and Petronas Chemicals weakened 12 sen to RM7.31. TNB gained two sen to RM10.08.

Of the actives, Classita, Sapura Energy, and Meta Bright added half-a-sen each to 7.5 sen, six sen and 21.5 sen, respectively, while Tanco was flat at 54.5 sen and Ekovest slid one sen to 54 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 30.06 points to 10,741.11, the FBMT 100 Index fell 32.41 points to 10,412.38, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 42.59 points to 10,968.76 and the FBM 70 Index shed 45.41 points to 14,206.42.

The FBM ACE Index improved by 1.37 points to 5,210.87.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index trimmed 19.61 points to 16,310.62 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.14 points to 173.34 while the Energy Index edged down 3.16 points to 890.70.

The Plantation Index contracted 62.86 points to 6,974.35. — Bernama