Bursa starts lower on cautious sentiment, muted buying

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Monday, weighed by cautious investor sentiment and subdued buying interest, which offset stronger gains on Wall Street last Friday.

At 9.16am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 1.60 points, or 0.09%, to 1,711.07 from Friday’s close of 1,712.67.

The benchmark index opened 1.24 points lower at 1,711.43.

On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 276 to 213, while 375 counters were unchanged, 1,834 untraded and 59 suspended.

Turnover stood at 368.76 million shares worth RM192.18 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended the previous session on a strong note, supported by stabilising bond yields.

He noted that the US 10-year Treasury yield held steady at 4.558%.

“Back home, the FBM KLCI closed above the 1,710 level in the previous session, lifted by selective bargain-hunting after several days of correction.

“Despite a spate of relatively decent corporate earnings, overall sentiment remains cautious. We expect the index to hover within the 1,700–1,720 range today,” he added.

Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank rose two sen to RM11.02, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.78, while Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM14.42 and RM8.96, respectively. CIMB slipped one sen to RM7.74.

Among active stocks, Hong Seng Consolidated and Velesto Energy eased half-a-sen each to 0.5 sen and 31 sen, respectively, while EI Power gained one sen to 63.5 sen. SFP Tech Holdings inched up two sen to 23.5 sen, and AirAsia X added five sen to RM1.17.

Top gainers included Petronas Dagangan, which advanced 38 sen to RM18.22, LPI Capital, up 20 sen to RM15.46, MI Technovation, which gained 15 sen to RM4.35, Petronas Gas, up 14 sen to RM17.14, and Malayan Cement, which added 11 sen to RM6.97.

Top losers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which fell 30 sen to RM48.20, Ajinomoto, down 28 sen to RM12.80, Petronas Chemicals, which declined 22 sen to RM5.48, ViTrox, down 11 sen to RM6.81, and KLCC Property Holdings, which slipped nine sen to RM9.01.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 13.22 points to 12,693.01, while the FBM Top 100 Index eased 16.21 points to 12,530.55. The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 25.48 points to 12,618.69, and the FBM Mid 70 Index declined 43.01 points to 18,255.29. The FBM ACE Index edged up 6.36 points to 4,732.33.

By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 22.78 points to 20,019.88, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.35 points to 199.28, the Energy Index slipped 3.70 points to 788.85, and the Plantation Index dropped 11.49 points to 8,572.78.

المصدر: Free Malaysia Today