Bursa M'sia opens lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened sharply lower today, derailed by equally sharp losses on the US and European stock markets.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,858.84, down 18.03 points from Thursday's close of 1,876.87.
The key index opened 16.29 points lower at 1,860.58.
A dealer said US and European stocks suffered sharp overnight losses and government bond prices jumped as the US imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, fuelling fresh concerns about the possibility of a global trade war.
"The Trump administration unveiled plans to slap 25% tariffs on up to US$60 billion, (RM234 billion) in annual imports from China, in response to a finding that Beijing had pursued a strategy of unfairly acquiring US intellectual property," he added.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Thursday trade 724.42 points or 2.9% lower at 23,957.89, the S&P 500 ended down 2.5% at 2,643.69, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished off lower by 2.4% at 7,166.68.
In Europe, Germany's DAX 30 stumbled 1.7%to close at 12,100.08, France's CAC 40 index gave up 1.4% to finish at 5,167.21 and the UK's FTSE 100 index dropped 1.2% to end at 6,952.59.
On the local front, the FBM Emas Index shed 137.62 points to 13,022.43, the FBMT 100 Index was 131.689 points lower at 12,801.49 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 132.699 points to 13,146.82.
The FBM 70 tumbled 185.08 points to 15,490.13 and the FBM Ace went down 99.55 points to 5,673.26.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index fell 201.631 points to 18,174.12, the Plantation Index was 20.42 points lower at 8,021.58 and the Industrial Index went down 33.75 points to 3,237.95.
Among heavyweights, Maybank lost 12 sen to RM10.42, Public Bank fell 20 sen to RM23.84, TNB eased four sen to RM15.74, CIMB gave up five sen to RM7.24 and Petronas Chemicals eased seven sen to RM8.14.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy and AirAsia lost 1.5 sen each to 52.5 sen and 38.5 sen, UMW O&G and CME slipped half-a-sen each to 30.5 sen and 4.5 sen, while Compugates was flat at 2.5 sen.
Market breadth was negative with 458 losers against 46 gainers, while 146 counters were unchanged, 1,245 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 194.55 million shares worth RM79.87 million.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives opened flat this morning on a lack of interest.
At 9.45 am, spot month March 2018, April 2018, May 2018 and June 2018 stood at RM168.0, RM168.90, RM169.65 and RM169.65 a gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 74 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold rose 74 sen to RM162.60 a gramme from RM161.86 a gramme at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama