Bursa Malaysia trades sideways in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was traded sideways in the early session today with caution ahead of the deadline later in the day by the US to impose tariffs on US$34 billion worth of Chinese imports, discouraging firmer trading commitments.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.94 points lower at 1,688.71 from Thursday's close of 1,690.95.
The index opened 3.87 points higher at 1,694.52.
A dealer said the market rebound in the last two days was seen as technically weak and at the minimum, representing a correction phase for the index's recent bout of retracement.
He added that the index's immediate overhead resistance is expected at 1,708 while immediate support is set at 1,664.
Among heavyweights, Maybank perked five sen to RM9.08 and Tenaga added four sen to RM14.46.
Public Bank fell 22 sen to RM22.68, Petronas Chemicals declined two sen to RM8.44 and CIMB eased five sen to RM5.48.
Among actives, TDM added one sen to 25.5 sen while Smtrack slipped half-a-sen to 12 sen.
Barakah Offshore, Nova MSC and Sapura Energy were flat at 15 sen, 17 sen and 60.5 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 0.12 of-a-point to 11,970.77 and the FBMT100 Index erased 4.789 points to 11,764.98 while the FBM70 was 26.34 points firmer at 14,734.55.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index edged up 8.221 points to 12,140.44 and the FBM Ace Index was up 17.29 points at 5,278.24.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 22.051 points to 16,577.45 while the Plantation Index gained 19.78 points to 7,522.44 and the Industrial Index was 0.36 of-a-point lower at 3,132.16.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 151 to 105, while 182 counters were unchanged, 1,429 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Volume stood at 155.02 million units valued at RM64.82 million.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM157.97 per gramme, up 38 sen from RM157.59 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama