Bursa Malaysia Opens Slightly Lower On Profit Taking
KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia retreated to open slightly lower on Friday on profit-taking, in line with Wall Street’s weaker overnight performance.
At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.18 points to 1,721.01 from Thursday’s close of 1,722.19, after opening 2.33 points weaker at 1,719.86.
On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 245 to 112, while 272 counters were unchanged, 2,106 untraded and 12 suspended.
Turnover stood at 179.18 million shares valued at RM79.29 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI is expected to trade slightly lower in view of the overnight pullback in US semiconductor stocks, with immediate selling pressure concentrated in the local technology sector.
“However, we anticipate that any downside risks could be cushioned by widespread optimism surrounding the official launch of the Large Scale Solar 6 (LSS6) programme.
“Moving forward, we expect tactical buying interest to rotate towards renewable energy and energy storage plays,” it said in a note.
Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM11.04 and RM7.70, respectively. Public Bank lost one sen to RM5.19, Tenaga Nasional was down four sen to RM14.26, while IHH Healthcare rose two sen to RM8.55.
Among active stocks, TWL, Ingenieur and Kinergy were all flat at 2.5 sen, four sen and 38.5 sen, respectively. Vinvest was down half a sen to one sen, and Nationgate slid three sen to RM1.14.
Among the top gainers, Petronas Dagangan increased 22 sen to RM19.64, Padini rose 16 sen to RM1.58, LPI Capital grew 12 sen to RM15.12, while IOI Properties and Telekom Malaysia rose five sen to RM3.94 and RM7.63, respectively.
Nestle was the top loser, dropping 94 sen to RM92.06. Malaysian Pacific Industries slipped 26 sen to RM45.02, Press Metal decreased nine sen to RM7.98, SAM Engineering and Frontken shed seven sen each to RM4.70 and RM4.78, respectively.
Among the broader indices, the FBM Emas Index erased 13.30 points to 12,685.92, the FBMT 100 Index weakened 12.51 points to 12,517.10, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 11.47 points to 12,509.80.
The FBM Mid 70 Index fell 34.71 points to 17,868.79, while the FBM ACE Index edged down 13.0 points to 4,902.11.
By sector, the Financial Services Index reduced by 6.54 points to 20,304.28, the Energy Index eased 3.83 points to 766.06, and the Industrial Products and Services Index contracted 0.94 of a point to 186.99.
The Plantation Index gained 17.34 points to 9,491.11,
-- BERNAMA