Bursa Malaysia opens lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning in line with the softer overnight tone of Wall Street and a decline in oil prices, dealers said.

At 9.12am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.27 points to 1,628.32 points against Wednesday's close of 1,629.59.

The index opened 0.56 of a point lower at 1,629.03.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 102 to 71, with 157 counters unchanged, 1,429 untraded and 26 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 69.08 million shares worth RM38.17 million.

Public Investment Bank said the FBM KLCI might trade within a narrow range today after global markets struggled to generate much in the way of excitement as activity continued to wind down ahead of the holiday break.

In a note, it said the softer performance on Wall Street frustrated some participants, hoping to see the Dow Jones Industrial Average break through the 20,000 level for the first time.

It closed 0.16 percent lower at 19,941.96, as the S&P 500 shed 0.25 percent to 2,265.18 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.23 percent to 5,471.43.

Brent, the international crude benchmark, fell 1.6 percent to US$54.46 a barrel.

Later today, the United States will be releasing a third revision of its third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data.

Among heavyweights on Bursa, Maybank fell two sen to RM7.85, TNB declined four sen to RM13.72, Public Bank dipped six sen to RM19.68 and Petronas Chemicals was flat RM6.92.

Of the actives, Malaysia Building Society rose three sen to 93 sen, RGB International shed half-a-sen to 28 sen, while PDZ Holdings and Perisai Petroleum Teknologi were each flat at seven sen and 5.5 sen respectively.

Among losers, Teck Guan Perdana eased 50 sen to RM2.27, NPC Resources fell 10 sen to RM2.25 and MISC shed seven sen to RM7.33.

The FBM Emas Index fell 7.80 points to 11,406.98, the FBMT100 Index was 7.06 points lower at 11,127.79 and the FBM Ace slid 7.77 points to 4,801.78.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index dipped 5.72 points to 11,980.69 and the FBM 70 eased 2.10 points to 13,078.96.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 3.83 points higher at 7,715.62 and the Industrial Index increased 1.14 points to 3,089.81.But, the Finance Index slid 9.66 points to 14,258.58.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM157.73 per gramme, down 11 sen from RM157.84 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama