KL shares open lower in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia edged lower this morning on selective trading as traders remained on the sidelines, awaiting fresh leads, dealers said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.18 of-a-point easier at 1,729.39 after opening 0.73 of-a-point lower at 1,728.84. The index closed at 1,729.57 on Tuesday.
On the broader market, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 188 to 86 while 193 counters were unchanged, 1,400 untraded and 40 others were suspended.
Turnover at early trade stood at 256.77 million shares worth RM90.92 million.
AllianceDBS Research said judging from yesterday's market performance, buying power was stronger than selling pressure.
"As such, the FBMKLCI would likely trade above the 1,729.57 points level today," it said in a note.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 1.33 points to 12,426.78, the FBMT100 Index trimmed 0.31 of-a-point to 12,092.65 while the FBM Emas Syariah Index gained 2.46 points to 12,856.05.
The FBM 70 added 2.93 points to 15,258.31 while the FBM Ace appreciated 28.73 points to 6,382.88.
On a sectorial basis, the Finance Index lost 19.82 points to 16,163.18, the Industrial Index bagged 7.53 points to 3,149.30 and the Plantation Index climbed 0.18 of-a-point to 7,843.75.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank were both flat at RM9.25 and RM20.20, respectively, Tenaga was down two sen at RM15.46, CIMB Group retraced four sen to RM6.14 while Petronas Chemicals advanced five sen to RM7.47.
Actively traded stocks this morning included PUC, Diversified Gateway and SMTrack which were flat at 26.5 sen, 9 sen and 22 sen, respectively, DNEX went up half-a-sen to 46 sen and Key Asic gained 1.5 sen to 22 sen.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM157.59 per gramme, down four sen from RM157.63 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama