Bursa Malaysia opens lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on profit-taking in most heavyweight counters, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 17.30 points to 1,635.44 from Thursday's close of 1,652.74.

The index opened 6.00 points easier at 1,646.74.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 125 to 116 while 132 counters remained unchanged, with 1,316 untraded and 24 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 92.51 million shares worth RM47.49 million.

A dealer said the local market was expected to remain cautious ahead of the release of the third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers later this morning.

He said the local share prices succumbed to profit-taking as investors also looked to square off their positions ahead of the weekend despite the uptrend on Wall Street.

"Meanwhile, Asian bourses were mixed as US bond yields increased on reaction to the possible effects of US presidential election winner Donald Trump's policy on inflation," the dealer said.

Alliance DBS Research expects the FBM KLCI to trade above the 1,664.27 level.

The FBM Emas Index declined 91.13 points to 11,541.69, the FBMT100 Index slipped 94.69 points to 11,248.23 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 84.22 points to 12,111.58.

The FBM 70 dipped 26.02 points to 13,478.90 but the FBM Ace rose 11.68 points to 4,994.51.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 24.19 points weaker at 7,709.70, the Finance Index lost 152.31 points to 14,328.73 while the Industrial Index dipped 30.87 points to 3,096.28.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank slipped eight sen to RM7.88, TNB dropped 12 sen to RM14.16, Public Bank slid 16 sen to RM19.62, Petronas Chemicals shed seven sen to RM6.79 and Sime Darby declined nine sen to RM8.15.

PetGas decreased 30 sen to RM21.54, Hong Leong Bank fell 26 sen to RM12.88, KL Kepong reduced 14 sen to RM23.32 and BAT eased 66 sen to RM45.76.

Of the actives, Borneo Oil and RGB each erased half-a-sen to 16.5 sen and 23 sen respectively, AirAsia X fell one sen to 43 sen, Heveaboard added three sen to RM1.41 while MNC was flat at seven sen.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.66 per gramme, down RM3.34 from RM171.00 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama