KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower today in line with the weaker Wall Street performance overnight.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.30 points to 1,603.89 from Tuesday’s close of 1,609.19.
The index opened 0.23 of-a-point easier at 1,608.96.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 231 to 159, while 311 counters were unchanged, 1,500 untraded and 86 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 453.71 million shares worth RM154.29 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said trading activities on the local bourse have somewhat weakened as sentiment remained cautious.
“As for the benchmark index, it seems like it is still stuck in a consolidation mode, hence, we anticipate it to hover within the 1,605-1,615 range today,” it said in a research note today.
Among heavyweights, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank rose two sen each to RM4.30 and RM18.82, respectively, Petronas Chemicals gained one sen to RM8.11, Maybank was flat at RM8.40, TNB eased four sen to RM10.36, and IHH Healthcare fell five sen to RM5.38.
As for the active counters, Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen to 15.5 sen, Solid Automotive bagged 1.5 sen to 24 sen, AirAsia X and MTouche were both flat at 9.5 sen and four sen, respectively, while AT Systematization and Berjaya Corp inched down half-a-sen to 10 sen and 39 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 30 points to 11,792.77, the FBM 70 decreased 11.06 points to 15,591.31, the FBMT 100 slipped 30.16 points to 11,464.88, the FBM ACE gave up 22.75 points to 10,210.14, and the FBM Emas Shariah shed 56.60 points to 13,032.79.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index put on 28.85 points to 15,487.76, the Plantation Index went down 6.33 points to 7,128.34, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.08 of-a-point to 193.45.
— Bernama
