Bursa Malaysia Opens Lower Amid Cautious Market Sentiment
KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday, with cautious sentiment expected to remain after Thursday's regional rally left Asian markets exposed to Wall Street's overnight pullback.
At 9.16 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) retreated 6.09 points to 1,708.50 from Thursday's close of 1,714.59.
The benchmark index opened 4.14 points lower at 1,710.45.
Across the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 336 to 151, while 280 counters were unchanged, 2,773 untraded and 30 suspended.
Turnover totalled 432.49 million shares worth RM134.15 million.
Apex Securities Bhd said market sentiment is being weighed down by Brent crude oil prices climbing above US$100 a barrel, coupled with a harsh market reaction to Alphabet's and Tesla's spending plans that sent the Nasdaq down 2.15 per cent.
Alphabet is a multinational technology conglomerate and Google’s parent company.
“Energy and oil-linked counters are expected to be the day's bright spot, supported by Brent crude oil holding at US$101 a barrel, while technology stocks may lag following the sell-off in megacap stocks.
“Overall, trading is expected to remain defensive and selective ahead of the weekend and next week's US Federal Reserve meeting, as year-high Treasury yields and record-low jobless claims have heightened the risk of a hawkish outcome,” it said in a note.
At the time of writing, the benchmark Brent crude oil price was traded at US$100.02 per barrel.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and CIMB lost two sen each to RM10.84 and RM7.71, respectively. Public Bank and IHH Healthcare declined three sen each to RM5.14 and RM8.36, and Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM14.40.
Among active stocks, AIMAX was flat at one sen, VS Industry declined a sen to 24 sen, Bumi Armada and GIIB inched up half-a-sen each to 37 sen and 57 sen, respectively, and Zetrix AI edged down a sen to 70 sen.
Among top gainers, ESYS improved 39 sen to 50 sen, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 10 sen to RM20.76, Gas Malaysia and Petronas Gas went up six sen each to RM5.18 and RM17.56, respectively. Westports was marginally higher by five sen to RM6.74.
Decliners were led by Nestle, which fell 36 sen to RM90.84, UMS Integration shed 26 sen to RM7.79, Malaysian Pacific dropped 24 sen to RM45.94, Hong Leong Bank lost 18 sen to RM22.18, and Kelington was 11 sen lower to RM7.91.
Among the broader indices, the FBM Emas Index decreased 38.13 points to 12,619.60, the FBMT Top 100 Index lost 37.07 points to 12,444.79, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 35.25 points to 12,461.03.
The FBM ACE Index gave up 24.65 points to 4,944.43, and the FBM Mid 70 Index shrank 21.79 points to 17,845.55.
By sector, the Energy Index put on 3.34 points to 777.48, but the Financial Services Index slipped 69.65 points to 20,141.06, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.56 of a point to 188.20, and the Plantation Index shed 14.52 points to 9,225.75.
-- BERNAMA