Bursa Malaysia lower in early trade
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on profit taking after yesterday's strong gains.
At 9:37am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,738.41, down 5.67 points from yesterday's close of 1,744.08.
The key index opened 0.74 of-a-point lower at 1,743.34.
A dealer said the near-term market sentiment, however, remained bullish as the index stayed above the 1,737-point support for more than two weeks.
"We are eyeing the immediate support level at 1,737 while the immediate resistance level is seen at 1,765.50," he said.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index decreased 30.9 points to 12,409.84, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 32.58 points to 12,886.05 and the FBMT100 Index fell 35.229 points to 12,033.33.
The FBM 70 erased 27.979 points to 14,726.69 and the FBM Ace went down 21.9 points to 6,183.19.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 38.3 points lower at 15,658.84, the Industrial Index eased 10.93 points to 3,258.99 and the Plantation Index edged down 27.99 points to 8,047.61.
The market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 295 to 200 with 298 counters unchanged, 949 untraded while 16 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 687.76 million shares worth RM187.8 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.98 while TNB added two sen to RM13.74.
Public Bank lost four sen to RM19.92 and Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals eased three sen each to RM9.27 and RM7.77, respectively.
Of actives, XOX added one sen to 11.5 sen and Bio Osmo and MNC Wireless earned half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively.
Hubline and Netx were flat at 8.5 sen and four sen, respectively.
Gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives opened higher with two contract months traded.
At 9.37am, spot month April 2017 was 15 ticks better at RM181.90 a gramme, while May 2017 gained 13 ticks to RM181.45.
June 2017 and July 2017 remained at RM180.30 and RM180.00 a gramme, respectively.
Volume and open interest stood at three lots and 289 contracts, respectively.
At 9:30 am, physical gold was up RM1.44 at RM177.01 a gramme. — Bernama