Bursa Malaysia opens lower on weaker demand
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning as buying demand was hampered by the subdued lead from Wall Street and a contraction in Malaysia's manufacturing sector in May.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.19 points lower at 1,764.68 from yesterday's close of 1,765.87.
Earlier, the index opened 1.3 points weaker at 1,764.57.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 130 to 128 while 181 counters remained unchanged with 1,331 untraded and 28 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 145.13 million shares worth RM48.85 million.
A dealer said the local bourse's weaker performance was in line with its regional peers, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.2 per cent this morning, following Wall Street's negative lead.
"Furthermore, reports on Malaysia's lower Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, which fell below the 50.0 no-change mark previously to 48.7 in May, also dampened investors' buying demand," he added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.43, TNB and Sime Darby fell two sen each to RM13.76 and RM9.30, respectively, while Public Bank was four sen lower at RM20.02.
Of actives, Hubline and Luster Industries inched down half-a-sen each to 5.5 sen and 12.5 sen, respectively, and Iris fell two sen to 14.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 7.65 points weaker at 12,562.25, FBMT 100 Index lost 7.02 points to 12,207.63 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 5.6 points to 12,798.41.
The FBM 70 eased 3.89 points at 14,911.77 and the FBM Ace decreased 33.06 points to 6,099.35.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index shed 12.45 points to 7,956.44, Finance Index was 13.49 points lower at 16,506.59 but the Industrial Index gained 1.57 po1ints to 3,249.38.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives opened untraded this morning.
As at 9.30am, spot month June 2017 stood at RM174.2 a gramme and July 2017 was at RM174.6 a gramme.
August 2017 and September 2017 were each pegged at RM175.1 gramme.
Turnover was nil, while open interest amounted to 224 contracts.
At 9.30am, physical gold rose 89 sen to RM169 per gramme. — Bernama