KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened with a negative bias today, as weaker crude oil and crude palm oil (CPO) prices continued to weigh on market sentiment.
At 9.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.86 points to 1,682.71 from Tuesday’s close of 1,687.57, after opening 1.88 points easier at 1,685.69 today.
Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 118 to 87, with 124 counters unchanged, 1,552 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume stood at 126.34 million units valued at RM59.46 million.
A dealer said investors’ risk appetite was dented after global benchmark Brent crude oil, reportedly entered a bear market, after losing about 24% from its peak in October to settle at US$65.47 per barrel on Tuesday.
“In addition, local CPO prices which declined over six consecutive trading days as of yesterday due to higher stock levels for Oct, also prompted investors to go into risk-off mode,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) expects Bursa Malaysia to trade choppy today, given the mixed overnight performance of US markets.
“Technically, we expect the FBM KLCI to range between the levels of 1,660 and 1,710 today, with downside supports at 1,680 and 1,658,“ it said in a note.
Among heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.18, Public Bank declined 14 sen to RM24.50, Tenaga was 12 sen weaker at RM14.66, Petronas Chemicals slipped four sen to RM9.50 and CIMB lost three sen to RM5.47.
Of actives, Securemetric and AirAsia X inched up one sen each to 54.5 sen and 25.5 sen respectively, Borneo Oil and Sapura Energy were flat at five sen and 37 sen, while, Hibiscus was five sen lower at RM1.05.
BAT led the losers list in giving up 40 sen for RM36.60, followed by UMW which slipped 23 sen to RM4.49, Lafarge Malaysia and Hong Leong Bank both dropped 14 sen each to RM2.04 and RM20.36, while CCM was down seven sen to RM1.77.
The FBM Emas Index shed 21.81 points at 11,680.27, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 23.71 points to 11,516.67 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 20.72 points to 11,819.47.
The FBM 70 gained 9.0 points to 13,651.64 and the FBM Ace Index was 8.63 points firmer at 4,926.13.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slumped 43.43 points to 17,006.90, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.04 of-a-point to 172.85 and the Plantation Index retreated 11.13 points to 7,246.52.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded in the early session today.
At 9.32 am, November 2018, December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019 were each unchanged at RM162.30, RM162.30, RM162.40 and RM162.50 per gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 26 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was up three sen to RM156.65 per gramme. — Bernama
