KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today in tracking the downtrend on key Asian markets following last Friday’s decline on Wall Street.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 2.66 points to 1,705.43 from last Friday’s close of 1,708.09, after opening 4.01 points lower at 1,704.08. today.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 83 to 72, with 138 unchanged, 1,558 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Volume stood at 87.61 million units valued at RM37.13 million.
A dealer said tumbling US markets last Friday were mainly dragged down by falling crude oil prices, coupled with further weakness in data out of China, sparking fears of a global economic slowdown and which in turn impacted regional markets.
“Besides, investors also remained worried over another possible US Federal Reserve interest rate hike by year-end,“ he said.
Regionally, the Singapore Straits Times Index eased 0.49 per cent to 3,077.97, Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.17% to 22,213.37, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 2.39% lower at 25,601.92.
Among heavyweights, Maybank eased four sen to RM9.25, Public Bank declined 12 sen to RM24.58, Tenaga was 10 sen weaker at RM14.90, Petronas Chemicals slipped three sen to RM9.56, while CIMB gained three sen to RM5.60.
Sapura Energy and Tatt Giap advanced two sen each to 39.5 sen and 23 sen respectively, Key Asic inched down half-a-sen to 14 sen, while Hibiscus and Orion were flat at RM1.12 and 10 sen respectively.
LPI topped the losers list by giving up 28 sen for RM16.32, followed by Padini which lost 20 sen to RM5.52, Westports dropping 19 sen to RM3.58, QL Resources which shed 12 sen to RM7.23 and KESM 10 sen weaker at RM10.50.
The FBM Emas Index was down 19.91 points at 11,826.35, the FBMT 100 Index slid 20.63 points to 11,667.50 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 19.82 points to 11,991.87.
The FBM 70 slipped 33.79 points to 13,812.20, while the FBM Ace Index was up 30.93 points at 4,963.53.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index shrank 29.03 points to 17,170.07 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.08 of-a-point to 173.38, but the Plantation Index dropped 1.67 points to 7,361.06.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded in the early session today as the stronger US dollar slashed demand for the precious metal, dealers said.
At 9.38 am, November 2018, December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019 were each unchanged at RM163.80, RM163.80, RM163.90 and RM164 per gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 28 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was down RM1.28 to RM157.29 per gramme. — Bernama
