Bursa Malaysia Lower In Early Trade
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Friday but soon retreated, with profit-taking seen in industrial products and construction counters, despite Wall Street’s ending higher overnight.
At 9.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased by 3.05 points to 1,731.66 from Thursday’s close of 1,734.71.
The benchmark index opened 0.01 of-a-point higher at 1,734.72.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 166 to 139, while 289 counters were unchanged, 2,234 untraded, and 28 suspended.
Turnover stood at 192.50 million shares valued at RM68.46 million.
In a note today, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said Wall Street closed broadly higher, with overall sentiment buoyed by the cooler-than-expected producer price index (PPI).
This will give the US Federal Reserve more reason to maintain interest rates at its next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in September.
“Overall, we believe investors are still in a cautious mode. Hence, we expect the FBM KLCI index to trend within the 1,730-1,740 range today,” it said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was two sen lower at RM10.58, while Public Bank, CIMB Group, Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were all flat at RM5.16, RM7.95, RM14,50, and RM8.27, respectively.
On the most active list, HHRG inched down 2.5 sen to 13 sen, but Scope Industries was one sen higher at nine sen. Nexgram Holdings, TWL Holdings and Key ASIC were up by half a sen each to 6.5 sen, 2.5 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively.
Among top gainers, UMS Integration rose 58 sen to RM9.03, Vitrox Corporation gained 15 sen to RM9.55, LPI Capital added 14 sen to RM15.22, Hong Leong Bank gained 12 sen to RM22.46, and UWC put on eight sen to RM6.63.
As for the top losers, Petronas Chemicals Group lost 10 sen to RM4.45, Press Metal Aluminium Holdings reduced six sen to RM7.92, Gamuda and Timberwell dropped five sen each to RM4.47 and RM1.85, respectively, and Sunway declined four sen to RM5.16.
Among the broader indices, the FBM ACE Index advanced 14.93 points to 5,259.58, and the FBM 70 Index inched up 3.27 points to 18,333.49.
The FBM Emas Index depreciated 14.14 points to 12,844.40, the FBMT 100 Index slid 16.10 points to 12,656.60, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 21.36 points to 12,673.62.
By sector, the Energy Index was 3.92 points lower to 779.40, the Financial Services Index gave up 0.38 of-a-point to 20,356.63, and the Plantation Index slipped 20.21 points to 9,353.45, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.55 points to 188.93.
-- BERNAMA