KL shares open marginally lower in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower this morning on selective trading as traders remained on the sidelines, a dealer said.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,718.87, down 0.60 of-a-point, from yesterday's close of 1,719.47. The key index opened 0.71 of-a-point easier at 1,718.76.
On the broader market, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 162 to 106 while 178 counters were unchanged, 1,412 untraded and 38 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 200.07 million shares worth RM72.64 million.
AllianceDBS Research said the analysis of overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure.
"As such, the FBMKLCI would likely trade below the 1,718.30 points level today," it said in a statement.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas rose 1.50 points to 12,357.90, the FBMT100 Index trimmed 0.37 of-a-point to 12,025.50 while the FBM Emas Syariah Index shed 4.70 points to 12,815.70.
The FBM 70 improved 13.10 points to 15,196.23, the FBM Ace appreciated 20.36 points to 6,276.34 while on a sectorial basis, the Finance Index bagged 3.23 points to 16,011.73, the Industrial Index went up 2.53 points to 3,140.09 but the Plantation Index dipped 15.57 points to 7,819.89.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was one sen lower at RM9.24, Tenaga was down eight sen at RM15.42 while Public Bank gained two sen to RM20.04.
Actively traded stocks this morning included PUC which gained one sen to 24 sen, Trive and Borneo Oil were both flat at 4.5 sen 9.5 sen, respectively, while JAG and Inix bagged half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and 10.5 sen, respectively.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM157.65 per gramme, down 81 sen from RM158.46 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama