Bursa Malaysia opens slightly lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower this morning, tracking regional peers and on a further slide in crude oil prices amid concerns over the outcome of this week's meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,624.76 points, slipped 2.50 point from last Friday's close of 1,627.26 . The index opened 1.89 point lower at 1,625.37.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 110 to 97, with 117 counters unchanged, 1,418 untraded and 80 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 80.62 million shares worth RM32.04 million.

A dealer said OPEC will meet on Wednesday in Vienna to try and finalise the terms of its first production decrease in eight years.

"Amid the anxiety, Brent Crude trading was down 84 cents at US$46.40 per barrel or 1.8%, from its last close, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude fell 74 cents to US$45.32 a barrel," said the dealer.

Meanwhile, TA Securities said the near-term sentiment would remain cautious as investors continued to focus on the short-term and long-term implication of a Donald Trump US presidency and ringgit volatility.
"Bursa Malaysia's immediate resistance level for the FBM KLCI stays at 1,643, with immediate support remaining at 1,616," it added.

Among heavyweights on Bursa, TNB added four sen to RM14.24, Maybank slid six sen to RM7.74, Sime Darby shed three sen to RM8.07, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were unchanged at RM19.50 and RM6.79 respectively.

Of the actives, Green Packet bagged half-a-sen to 28 sen, MQ Technology warrant gained two sen to 2.5 sen, while Hibiscus Petroleum and AirAsia X eased half-a-sen each to 29.5 sen and 38 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index fell 17.51 points to 11,406.81, the FBMT100 Index was 17.53 points lower at 11,126.07 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index narrowed 6.41 points to 11,986.83 and the FBM 70 slipped 22.12 points to 13,156.87.

The FBM Ace improved 12.10 points to 4,919.21.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 18.11 points lower at 7,710.93, the Finance Index fell 39.96 to 14,156.63 and the Industrial Index slipped 6.01 points to 3,080.27.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM165.49 per gramme, up 37 sen from RM165.12 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama