KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher today on mild bargain hunting despite a mixed session on Wall Street, an analyst said.
At 9:10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 0.14 of a point to 1,700.98 from Monday’s close of 1,700.84, after opening 2.26 points better at 1,703.10.
The market breadth was, however, negative, with decliners outpacing gainers 206 to 110.
A total of 277 counters were unchanged, 2,133 were untraded, and 13 were suspended.
Turnover amounted to 204.88 million shares worth RM97.94 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s Vice-President of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng, noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended lower due to a sell-off in technology stocks.
He said traders are also monitoring developments in West Asia after the United States (US) and Iran agreed on a 60-day roadmap to finalise all agreements.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell below 23,800 as funds rotated out of technology stocks amid uncertainty over US-Iran negotiations.
On the local front, the FBM KLCI slipped to just above the 1,700 mark, mainly due to broad-based selling by foreign funds on Monday.
“For today, we expect trading to remain muted, with the index likely to trade within the 1,695-1,705 range,” Thong told BERNAMA.
Among heavyweight stocks, Sunway gained six sen to RM5.33, while Tenaga Nasional added 8.0 sen to RM14.58, and Sunway Healthcare topped up one sen to RM1.85. Maybank bagged four sen to RM11.00, and SD Guthrie garnered two sen to RM6.12.
Of the most active stocks, HSS Holdings rose 1.0 sen to 19 sen, Zetrix AI and OCR were flat each at 78.5 sen and 4.0 sen, respectively, while Nova MSC and VS Industry eased half-a-sen each to 7.0 sen and 19.5 sen.
Among top gainers, Ajinomoto jumped RM3.78 to RM18.98, while Skyechip, Tenaga and Hong Leong Financial Group gained 8.0 sen each to RM3.44, RM14.58 and RM18.52 respectively, while SAM Engineering added six sen to RM5.25.
The top losers were led by Malaysian Pacific Industries (MPI), which erased 56 sen to RM48.28, while Kellington and Petronas Chemicals were down by 10 sen each to RM7.62 and RM4.17, respectively. MI Technovation and Vitrox shed nine sen each to RM4.73 and RM7.37.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 8.26 points to 12,594.53, while the FBM Top 100 Index weakened 7.40 points to 12,429.21 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 17.97 points to 12,467.52.
The FBM Mid 70 Index lost 46.60 points to 17,990.49, while the FBM ACE Index shed 9.97 points to 4,782.68.
By sector, the Financial Services Index recovered 14.06 points to 20,015.32, and the Plantation Index grew 7.33 points to 8,864.39, but the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.73 of a point to 188.06, and the Energy Index slid 2.19 points to 760.67. – BERNAMA
