Bursa M'sia opens lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended losses from Wednesday to open lower today, as investor sentiment remained bearish after a sharp overnight fall on Wall Street.
At 9.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,853.12, down 3.08 points from yesterday's close of 1,856.20.
The key index opened 3.64 points weaker at 1,852.56.
Market breadth was negative with 314 losers against 87 gainers, while 166 counters were unchanged, 1,282 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 245.84 million shares worth RM88.04 million.
In a note today, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) expects trading on Bursa Malaysia to continue staying volatile today, while tracking the weakness on Wall Street, which slumped to a two-year low.
"Oil and gas stocks could come under pressure as oil prices tanked," it said.
Technically, the research house anticipates the FBM KLCI to trade between 1,840 and 1,860-points today, with downside support located at between the1,840 and 1,812 levels.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell two sen to RM10.44, Public Bank slid eight sen to RM22.92, while TNB rose six sen to RM15.76, CIMB and Petronas Chemicals perked one sen each to RM7.20 and RM8.10, respectively.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Sumatec, Sino Hua-An and Iris eased one sen to seven sen, 54 sen and 16.5 sen, PUC trimmed 2.5 sen to 23.5 sen and Vivocom lost half-a-sen to 8.5 sen.
Nestle led the top losers list, slipping RM3.10 to RM125.00, followed by Ajinomoto which gave up 48 sen to RM22.30, Hong Leong Bank slid 38 sen to RM19.64, Hartalega decreased 28 sen to RM11.40 and Malayan Flour was 25 sen lower at RM1.80.
The FBM Emas Index eased 30.16 points to 13,188.19, the FBMT 100 Index was 25.71 points weaker at 12,897.05 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 33.24 points to 13,394.27.
The FBM 70 dipped 46.56 points to 16,067.94 and the FBM Ace was lower by 54.84 points to 6,152.00.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 54.45 points to 18,208.64, the Industrial Index eased 8.03 points to 3,219.98, while the Plantation Index advanced 11.09 points to 8,002.56.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded in the early session today.
At 9.35 am, spot month March 2018, April 2018, May 2018 and June 2018 remained pegged at RM167.75, RM168.50, RM168.60 and RM168.45 a gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 60 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was down by nine sen to RM160.60 a gramme. — Bernama