Bursa Malaysia opens lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia erased yesterday's gains to open lower today, amid mixed trading sentiment, coupled with external factors which will see the United States adopt gradually phase-in corporate tax-rate cut, that contributed to the downbeat mood among investors, a dealer said.
At 9.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.95 of-a-point weaker at 1,747.40 from yesterday's close of 1,748.35.
At 9.40am, it rebounded 1.46 points to 1,749.81 aided by crude oil prices which were hovering above US$60 per barrel.
On the broader market, gainers was slightly higher at 207 against 204 losers while 276 counters remained unchanged with 1,204 untraded and 110 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 609.59 million shares worth RM192.03 million.
In a note today, Hong Leong Investment Bank said construction, technology and oil and gas stocks may still trade actively on the back of a friendly 2018 Budget and firmer Brent crude oil price which was trading above US$60 per barrel.
Oil prices stood to gain from the possibility of prolonged production cut by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries which would expire in March 2018.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.25, Tenaga added 10 sen to RM14.90, PBBank was unchanged at RM20.50, Sime declined two sen to RM9.25 and PChem erased a sen to RM7.49.
Of actives, HuaAn jumped eight sen to 31 sen, DataPrp gained three sen to 23 sen, Trive improved half-a-sen to 14.5 sen while Cuscapi declined two sen to 40 sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 7.56 points to 12,604.35, FBMT100 Index was 8.42 points firmer at 12,241.38 and FBM Emas Syariah Index increased 10.73 points to 13,077.11.
The FBM Ace accumulated 36.21 points to 6,937.12 and the FBM 70 jumped 11.60 points to 15,473.79.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 10.78 points better at 8,020.41, Industrial Index erased 5.72 points to 3,210.97 and the Finance Index contracted 3.88 points to 16,273.92.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.91 per gramme, up 55 sen from RM167.36 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama