KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower today, tracking Wall Street’s performance, while lower trading volume suggested a lack of retail participation ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays next week.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.22 points to 1,754.17, after opening 0.12 of a point lower at 1,755.09 against yesterday’s close of 1,756.39.

On the broader market, gainers were slightly higher than losers, 136 to 121, while 260 counters were unchanged. A total of 2,179 counters were untraded, and 11 were suspended.

Market turnover was 143.96 million shares worth RM107.0 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended lower despite better-than-expected January job data as traders took the opportunity to lock in profits.

“As for Bursa Malaysia, the key index maintained its resilience to close on a positive note, with foreign buying having been apparent as blue chips remain the centre of attention.

“As such, the daily volume is still low at below the three billion-level, suggesting a lack of retail participation. Therefore, the long-awaited CNY rally may not happen yet,” he said.

Thong said the index is expected to trend in the 1,750 to 1,765 range.

Among index heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM12.26, Public Bank increased two sen to RM5.16, CIMB was one sen better at RM8.60, and Tenaga Nasional was unchanged at RM14.00.

On the most active list, Kee Ming jumped 49 sen to 87 sen, Borneoi Oil was flat at one sen, Ambest was flat at 32.5 sen, TWL perked up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, and MMAG was flat at 4.5 sen.

Among gainers in the broader market were Hong Leong Industries and Dutch Lady, both rose 22 sen each to RM18.42 and RM33.22, respectively. F&N was 14 sen higher at RM32.44, and Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM24.94.

Leading decliners were Malaysian Pacific Industries, which lost 34 sen to RM30.46, PPB Group was down eight sen to RM11.02, while MI Technovation fell seven sen to RM3.00.

On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 1.20 points to 12,654.41, the FBM Emas Index reduced 0.05 of a point to 12,828.72, the FBM Mid 70 Index advanced 16.44 points to 17,573.73, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 6.05 points to 12,256.38, and the FBM ACE Index erased 0.25 of-a-point to 4,750.24.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index added 6.77 points to 21,877.15, the Plantation Index erased 5.76 points to 8,380.13, the Energy Index gained 7.25 points to 756.64, but the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.04 of-a-point to 176.47. — Bernama