Bursa Malaysia extends losses to open lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its losses from yesterday to open lower, in line with its weaker Asian peers as they tumbled after the US Federal Reserve announced it will shrink its balance sheet by US$4.5 trillion (RM18.9 trillion) through quantitative tightening.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.39 points lower at 1,767.75 from yesterday's close of 1,769.14.
The index opened 0.59-of-a point lower at 1,768.55.
On the broader market, gainers, however, thumped losers 116 to 100, with 176 counters unchanged, 1,452 untraded and 30 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 257.49 million shares worth RM54.24 million.
In a note today, Kenanga Research said the quantitative tightening activity, which was scheduled to begin in October, posed the greatest risk to emerging markets.
"The move might trigger a sell-off in equity markets due to an outflow of foreign funds," it said.
However, with the index testing the support level of 1,753 points, it would not rule out the emergence of bargain hunting activities at these levels.
Of heavyweights, Maybank shed three sen to RM9.75, Tenaga and CIMB eased two sen each to RM14.38 and RM6.29, respectively, while Public Bank and Sime Darby remained unchanged at RM20.60 and RM9.10, respectively.
Among active counters, Hibiscus Petroleum gained 2.5 sen to 65.5 sen, Maxwell and UMW Oil and Gas shed half-a-sen each to two sen and 33.5 sen, respectively, while Sumatec and Hubline were flat at six sen and 8.5 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index fell 0.31-of-a-point to 12,602.20 and the FBMT 100 Index slipped 1.26 points to 12,256.76.
However, the FBM 70 added 29.93 points to 15,076.81, the FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 3.18 points to 12,824.82 and the FBM Ace was 1.11 points better at 6,582.45.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index gave up 24.76 points to 16,616.34 while the Industrial Index perked 0.43 of-a-point to 3,227.92 and the Plantation Index was 11.90 points higher at 7,898.27.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM171.31 per gramme, up RM2.44 from RM168.87 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama