KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower, tracking Wall Street’s mixed performance overnight as investors remained cautious amid mixed sentiment surrounding artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 8.40 points to 1,732.54 from Thursday’s close of 1,740.94, after opening 3.88 points lower at 1,737.06.

Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 297 to 142, while 274 counters remained unchanged. A total of 1,977 counters were untraded, and 76 were suspended.

Turnover stood at 214.54 million shares worth RM152.35 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed mixed as AI-related stocks came under pressure, with Nvidia and US cloud-based software company Salesforce declining despite better-than-expected results.

“Meanwhile, the US 10-year yield fell to 4.01 per cent,” he told Bernama.

Thong said, back home, the FBM KLCI’s decline yesterday presented an excellent bargain-hunting opportunity, particularly if the index closes in on the 1,730 level.

“Although external sentiment remains cautious, we expect the index to hover within the 1,735-1,745 range,” he said.

Among heavyweight counters, Maybank fell six sen to RM11.94, Public Bank shed five sen to RM4.95, and CIMB Group lost 12 sen to RM8.34. Tenaga Nasional advanced 16 sen to RM14.34, while IHH Healthcare eased seven sen to RM8.95.

On the most active list, MBSB dropped 4.5 sen to 71.5 sen, Velesto Energy slid half-a-sen to 30 sen, Bintai Kinden gained one sen to 10.5 sen, Zetrix AI rose two sen to 82 sen, and Ambest slipped 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen.

Top gainers included Greatech, which soared 23 sen to RM2.20, MHC Plantations advancing 13 sen to RM1.76, Kelington climbing 13 sen to RM5.34, Vitrox adding 11 sen to RM4.63, and Time dotCom rising 11 sen to RM6.27.

Top losers included Ayer Holdings, which tumbled 37 sen to RM7.01, Batu Kawan falling 32 sen to RM19.38, United Plantations retreating 24 sen to RM29.76, Ajinomoto declining 20 sen to RM13.60, and Dufu Technology sliding 18 sen to RM1.58.

On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index fell 74.60 points to 12,519.71, the FBM Emas Index lost 72.18 points to 12,696.42, the FBM 70 Index eased 34.77 points to 17,663.47, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 46.95 points to 12,264.76, and the FBM ACE Index slipped 20.83 points to 4,743.72.

By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 156.40 points to 21,309.94, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.26 points to 174.08, the Energy Index slipped 4.90 points to 754.56, and the Plantation Index declined 57.84 points to 8,293.71. — Bernama