Bursa Malaysia opens lower in cautious trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower, weighed down by losses in key heavyweights, with trading remaining cautious ahead of the release of several economic data scheduled for this week.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.46 points weaker at 1,763.43 from yesterday's close of 1,764.89.
At 9am, the index opened 0.5 of-a-point lower at 1,764.39.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 123 to 114 while 209 counters remained unchanged with 1,327 untraded and 42 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 129.92 million shares worth RM46.42 million.
In a note, Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said the benchmark index was trending lower since yesterday and trading was likely to be on a negative bias today.
"As there are several economic data that will be released this week, namely US jobs data and Malaysia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), investors may stay cautious," it added.
Meanwhile, Forextime Ltd Corporate Development and Market Research Vice-President Jameel Ahmad said following the upside surprise from the recent Malaysian Gross Domestic Product data, there would be optimism that the Manufacturing PMI would show that the economy was carrying the same momentum into the second quarter of 2017.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby fell six sen each to RM9.34 and RM9.27, respectively, Sime Public Bank added two sen to RM20.02 and TNB was flat at RM13.72.
Of actives, Hibiscus Petroleum rose 5.5 sen to 46.5 sen, NetX Holdings was unchanged at six sen and JAG gained half-a-sen to 13.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 5.15 points lower at 12,591.05, FBMT 100 Index lost 6.9 points to 12,226.25 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 7.21 points to 12,842.32.
The FBM 70 was up 3.66 points at 15,037.04 but the FBM Ace was 8.98 points lower at 6,259.1.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index gained 29.96 points to 8,080.19, Finance Index added 8.65 points to 16,444.79 but the Industrial Index decreased 1.23 points to 3,245.48.
Gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives opened unchanged in early trade.
As at 9.30am, spot month May 2017 stood at RM174.00 a gramme, June 2017 maintained at RM174.65 a gramme while July 2017 and August 2017 were pegged at RM175.05 and RM175.55 a gramme, respectively.
Turnover was nil and open interest amounted to 257 contracts.
At 9.30am, physical gold was 41 sen higher at RM169.13 per gramme. — Bernama