Bursa Malaysia opens lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today in extending yesterday's losses and on emerging concerns over the regional economic outlook, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.68 points weaker at 1,667.03, as compared to Tuesday's close of 1,671.71.

The index opened 2.84 points lower at 1,668.87.

However, gainers outpaced decliners 134 to 79, while 202 counters were unchanged, 1,278 untraded and 24 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 121.84 million shares worth RM51.12 million.

Hong Leong Investment Bank expects the benchmark index to stay sideways despite an upside bias to break 1,675 soon, as sentiment is boosted by stimulus measures, and accommodative policies of central banks and governments to spur flagging economies.

However, it said a further strong upside may be capped, given the nagging concerns over China's economy, the lack of fresh local re-rating catalysts and ongoing August reporting season.

"We remain optimistic that the KLCI will break the three-month high of 1,675 points in the near term, following a decisive breakout above the 100 days simple moving average, and the downtrend line last week coupled with upticks in indicators.

"A convincing breakout above the three-month high will spur the KLCI towards the 1,684 and 1,700 targets.

"The ongoing rebound would be disrupted if the index retraces below the 1,667 levels again," it said in research note today.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 17.95 points to 11,726.17, the FBMT 100 Index fell 23.64 points at 11,419.18 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 6.15 points to 12,369.17.

The FBM 70, however, rose 2.59 points to 13,516.47 and the FBM Ace gained 34.99 points to 5,467.52.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index added 2.20 points to 3,156.33 and the Plantation Index eased 0.88 of a point to 7,650.34.But, the Finance Index was 56.22 points lower at 14,279.25.

Among heavyweights, TNB and Public Bank improved two sen each to RM14.64 and RM19.38 respectively, Maybank shed two sen to RM7.98, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.55.

Of the actives, HSS Engineering advanced 7.5 sen to 57.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange earned half-a-sen to 22 sen, MBSB declined two sen to 86.5 sen, while Borneo Oil was flat at 18 sen.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.72 per gramme, up 67 sen from RM167.05 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama