BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS LOWER AS OIL PRICE SURGE WEIGHS

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Monday, tracking weaker Wall Street performance overnight as sentiment was dented by a spike in crude oil prices, with Brent crude hovering above US$105 per barrel.

At 9.12 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 23.21 points, or 1.35 per cent, to 1,694.85 from last Friday’s close of 1,718.06, after opening 18.93 points lower at 1,699.13.

Market breadth was negative, with losers outpacing gainers 603 to 164. A total of 218 counters were unchanged, 1,647 untraded and 33 suspended.

Turnover stood at 651.16 million shares worth RM485.84 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street overnight was also pressured by disappointing US job data for February.

“Faced with the possibility of stagflation, the US economy is further undermined by high crude oil prices. In addition, unemployment rose to 4.4 per cent from 4.3 per cent previously as February recorded a drop in new jobs,” he told Bernama.

Crude oil prices surged past US$105 per barrel and briefly peaked at US$108 on Sunday after Mojtaba Khamenei was named Iran’s new supreme leader following the death of his father in a US-Israeli airstrike.

Meanwhile, he noted that the US 10-year yield was flat at 4.138 per cent.

“Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rebounded, although confidence remains fragile due to high crude oil prices. The index is still down nearly 550 points on a weekly basis,” he added.

Back home, Thong said that after the FBM KLCI closed predominantly higher last Friday, he expects the benchmark index to trade between 1,710 and 1,725 today, as the market undertone remains cautious.

At the time of writing, Brent crude rose 18.45 per cent to US$109.8 per barrel.

Among heavyweights, CelcomDigi and Sime Darby eased 6.0 sen each to RM3.16 and RM2.40, respectively. Maxis and Kuala Lumpur Kepong slipped 4.0 sen each to RM3.81 and RM19.32, while Tenaga Nasional fell 22 sen to RM13.98.

On the most active list, Velesto rose 1.5 sen to 34.5 sen and Bumi Armada edged up 3.0 sen to 38 sen. Ta Win slipped half-a-sen to 1.0 sen, AirAsia X fell 22 sen to RM1.06 and Capital A declined 5.0 sen to 38 sen.

Short selling of AirAsia X was suspended for the rest of the day after its last traded price fell more than 15 per cent, or 15 sen, from the reference price. It will resume on Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 8.30 am.

Meanwhile, top gainers on Bursa Malaysia this morning included Petronas Chemicals, which rose 95 sen to RM5.24; Hengyuan Refining Company, up 34 sen to RM2.03; Hibiscus Petroleum, which gained 30 sen to RM2.35; Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing, up 24 sen to RM5.14; and Dialog Group, which added 20 sen to RM2.11.

Top losers included Nestle, which slid RM3.60 to RM102.20; Malaysian Pacific Industries, down 90 sen to RM29.20; Hong Leong Bank, which shed 58 sen to RM22.24; Hong Leong Industries, down 46 sen to RM16.72; and Hong Leong Financial, which fell 36 sen to RM20.50.

On the index board, the FBM T100 Index declined 171.20 points to 12,196.21, the FBM Emas Index fell 166.87 points to 12,360.49, the FBM 70 Index dropped 255.56 points to 16,847.77, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 90.42 points to 12,116.38, and the FBM ACE Index lost 108.94 points to 4,291.09.

By sector, the Financial Services Index trimmed 450.63 points to 20,337.42, and the Plantation Index eased 25.69 points to 8,222.75. The Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 5.07 points to 183.36, while the Energy Index gained 34.62 points to 829.89.

-- BERNAMA