BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS LOWER AMID MIXED WALL STREET PERFORMANCE

By Danni Haizal Danial Donald

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Tuesday amid mixed overnight performance on Wall Street and profit-taking in selected heavyweights, an analyst said.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 6.16 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 1,631.93 against Monday’s close at 1,638.09.

The benchmark index opened 2.03 points lower at 1,636.06.

Market breadth was negative, with 251 decliners outnumbering 112 gainers, 301 counters were unchanged, 1,912 untraded, and seven suspended.

Turnover stood at 474.28 million units, valued at RM134.27 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended on a mixed note overnight, but other major markets touched record highs, spurred by merger and acquisition optimism.

He said the United States (US) government shutdown continues, with the US 10-year yield trending higher at 4.16 per cent.

“On the home front, the FBM KLCI saw signs of improving retail participation over the last few days with improved trading volume.

“Therefore, we expect the index to hover within the 1,635-1,645 range today. Meanwhile, gold price surged to another record high at US$3,940 per troy ounce.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB lost four sen each to RM9.98 and RM7.63, respectively. Public Bank fell one sen to RM4.36, Tenaga Nasional slipped two sen to RM13.34 and IHH Healthcare dipped six sen to RM8.29.

In active trading, Borneo Oil and KNM Group were flat at half-a-sen, ACE-Market debutant Cheeding Holding grew 40 sen to 76 sen, Mtouche Technology gained one sen to seven sen and Dagang Nexchange inched up half-a-sen to 26.5 sen.

Besides Cheeding, other top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, up 24 sen to RM31.24; Mega First Corporation, up nine sen to RM3.89; UWC rising five sen to RM4.22; and MI Technovation, up four sen to RM2.73.

Top losers were Petronas Gas and Far East Holdings, each down 20 sen to RM18.62 and RM3.90, respectively. United Plantations was down 18 sen to RM23.30; PPB Group fell 14 sen to RM10.38 and PJBumi,  lost nine sen to RM2.72.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 39.13 points to 12,141.79, the FBM 100 Index decreased 39.63 points to 11,872.84 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 38.59 points to 12,159.12.

The FBM 70 Index narrowed 34.09 points to 16,980.33, while the FBM ACE Index eased 0.60 of a point to 5,332.87.

By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.05 of a point to 173.47, the Energy Index reduced 1.06 points to 785.07, the Plantation Index declined 21.78 points to 7,798.25, and the Financial Services Index shed 58.56 points to 18,577.35.

-- BERNAMA