BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS LOWER AMID PASSIVE FOREIGN BUYING

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia extended its bearish tone on Tuesday, opening lower due to a lack of buying interest from foreign funds, according to a dealer.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 0.71 of-a-point to 1,609.76, down from yesterday's close of 1,610.47. 

The benchmark index initially opened 1.90 points firmer at 1,612.37.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners outnumbering advancers by 137 to 122. Additionally, 256 counters were unchanged, 1,965 were untraded, and 123 were suspended.

Turnover amounted to 103.56 million units valued at RM53.33 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the benchmark continued to slip, closing just above the 1,610 mark despite an optimistic opening, due to profit-taking by foreign funds.

“We suspect recent outflows of foreign funds can be due to expectations of a smaller rate cut by the Federal Reserve, which also saw the ringgit weakening against the greenback to currently RM4.36.

“For today, we expect the index to hover within the 1,610-1,620 range,” he said in a note today.

Among heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM10.46, Public Bank was unchanged at RM4.46, CIMB rose three sen to RM8.05, Tenaga declined eight sen to RM13.92, and IHH eased two sen to RM7.34.

Leading active stocks, OB Holdings gained one sen to 25 sen, MyEG edged down half-a-sen to 87.5 sen, while Yew Lee and its warrant advanced half-a-sen each to 57.5 sen and 24.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM ACE Index added 15.72 points to 5,056.11. The FBM Emas Index lost 0.71 of-a-point to 12,158.13, the FBM 70 Index fell 6.38 points to 17,639.33, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 4.97 points to 11,862.50, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 16.59 points to 12,118.59.

By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 11.78 points to 19,137.20, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.03 of-a-point to 175.04, while the Plantation Index dropped 12.45 points to 7,297.84 and the Energy Index slid 0.60 of-a-point to 836.97.

-- BERNAMA