KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened lower today due to profit-taking following its positive performance yesterday while tracking Wall Street’s mixed performance overnight at the same time.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI eased 1.43 points to 1,626.07 versus yesterday’s close of 1,627.50.
The barometer index opened 0.88 of-a-point firmer at 1,628.38.
Losers surpassed gainers 219 to 189, with 349 counters unchanged, 1,632 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover was 293.83 million units worth RM158.41 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said it was a mixed day on Wall Street as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) declined following a record-breaking run recently.
“Nonetheless, sentiment remains optimistic due to good economic growth amid prospects of lower interest rates,” he said.
The DJIA eased 197 points while the Nasdaq jumped 109 points to a record high, spurred mainly by the surge in Nvidia shares.
On the local front, Thong believes the buying momentum may persist today as most of the blue chips are still reasonably valued.
“Nonetheless, we expect the index to possibly take a breather ahead of the Wesak Day holiday tomorrow. Thus, we expect it to trend between the 1,620-1,635 range today,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB shed three sen to RM9.96 and RM6.81, respectively, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.18, while Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM12.80, and Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.09.
As for the actives, Feytech gained 34 sen to RM1.14, Orgabio rose nine sen to 41.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang and Sapura Energy were unchanged at eight sen and 4.5 sen, respectively, and Panda Eco slid two sen to 35.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas index slipped 7.92 points to 12,390.62, the FBMT 100 index reduced 8.37 points to 11,981.72, the FBM 70 index dropped 3.54 points to 17,777.98 and the FBM ACE index fell 5.16 points to 5,414.37.
Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Shariah index improved 1.13 points to 12,643.53.
Sector-wise, the financial services index went down 48.17 points to 17,678.94, the plantation index gave up by 7.55 points to 7,393.15 and the energy index decreased by 2.36 points to 995.82.
However, the industrial products and services index firmed 0.02 of-a-point to 197.81. – May 21, 2024