KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Bursa Malaysia has continued its downtrend to open lower today, taking its cue from the negative Wall Street performance amidst cautious market sentiments.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased by 0.82 points to 1,483.44 from Thursday’s close of 1,484.26.
The key index opened 0.23 of-a-point weaker at 1,484.03.
Market breadth was negative with losers surpassing gainers 242 to 95, while 255 counters were unchanged, 1,633 untraded and 36 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 287.60 million units worth RM123.71 million.
In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the Dow Jones Index slipped by 1.3 per cent due to the news that the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) officials are bracing for a 50 basis points interest rate hike amid the recent batch of strong economic data.
The brokerage said as investors digest stronger-than-expected inflation reports, global sentiments have turned slightly weaker yet again in anticipation of the Fed’s hawkish tone moving forward.
“While bargain-hunting activities may occur amidst the reporting season, we believe that cautious sentiments on the global front may cap the buying momentum on the local bourse,” it said.
Meanwhile, the firm said the plantation sector might be in the spotlight after the crude palm oil price rose above RM4,000 per tonne.
“Closer to the re-tabling of Budget 2023, we remain positive on the construction, building material sectors as well as renewable energy and electric vehicle-related stocks,” it added.
In the meantime, Bursa heavyweight Maybank rose 1.0 sen to RM8.78, and both Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM4.17 and RM8.20, respectively, while CIMB lost 1.0 sen to RM5.42 and Tenaga Nasional fell 4.0 sen to RM9.86.
As for the actives, Cuscapi and Jade Marvel increased by 1.0 sen each to 26 sen and 31 sen, respectively, Bina Puri added half-a-sen to 4.5 sen and SMRT gained 2.5 sen to 26 sen, while Nylex was flat at 63 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 20.56 points to 10,795.11, the FBMT 100 Index went down 19.31 points to 10,461.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 31.62 points to 11,145.66, the FBM 70 Index dipped 83.21 points to 13,616.77 and the FBM ACE Index was 54.53 points weaker at 5,695.02.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index narrowed by 69.84 points to 6,831.86, the Energy Index declined 4.26 points to 896.94, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.32 of-a-point to 190.14, and the Financial Services Index slipped by 4.31 points to 16,115.68.
— Bernama
