Bursa Malaysia opens lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today, in line with the weakness on regional markets, amid lingering worries over global trade tensions.
At 9.06am today, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 11.60 points lower at 1,680.72 from Thursday's close of 1,692.32.
The index opened 9.35 points easier at 1,682.97 at 9am.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 134 to 80, while 133 counters were unchanged, 1,579 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Volume stood at 76.74 million units valued at RM41.28 million.
In a note today, Public Investment Bank Bhd said renewed political concerns in Italy, along with an overnight fresh slide in crude oil prices also put world stock markets under pressure.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei retreated 1.04% to 22,458.01, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.35% to 29,296.05 and Singapore's Straits Times was 0.48% weaker at 3,300.0.
On the technical front, Kenanga Research said in a note that the index remained bearishly biased at this juncture, as recent trend lines were highly negative.
"We look towards support at the 1,680 level and possibly 1,615. Should a turnaround occur, overhead resistance can be found at the 1,720 and 1,760 levels," it added.
For heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB slid one sen each to RM9.16 and RM5.82 respectively, Tenaga trimmed 20 sen to RM13.74, Petronas Chemicals eased nine sen to RM8.31, while Public Bank was flat at RM22.62.
Among actives, Sapura Engergy gained three sen to 63 sen, while Nova MSC and MyEG slid half-a-sen each to 12.5 sen and 99.5 sen, with Perisai and Orion unchanged at 4.5 sen and eight sen respectively.
Nestle led the top losers list in giving up RM1.10 to RM145.90, BAT fell 50 sen to RM35.58, PPB was 42 sen lower at RM19.10, Petronas Dagangan retreated 40 sen to RM23.72 and KLK dropped 32 sen to RM23.46.
The FBM Emas Index fell 63.02 points to 11,893.87, the FBMT100 Index skidded 64.81 points to 11,680.40, the FBM Emas Syariah Index lost 82.81 points to 11,964.05 and the FBM70 declined 21.71 points to 14,520.85.
The FBM Ace Index advanced 2.94 points to 5,161.39.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index inched down 28.37 points to 3,101.21, the Plantation Index eased 58.64 points to 7,478.94 and the Finance Index was down 31.86 points to 16,714.46.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM158.23 per gramme, up 53 sen from RM157.70 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama