Bursa Malaysia Opens Lower, Bucking Wall Street's Gains 

By Karina Imran

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday due to a lack of fresh catalysts, bucking overnight Wall Street gains on strong US economic data, said an analyst.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.89 points to 1,663.43 from Thursday’s close of 1,671.32. 

The benchmark index opened 2.73 points easier at 1,668.59.

Across the broader market, losers led gainers 233 to 125, with 305 counters unchanged, 1,863 untraded and 123 suspended.

Turnover totalled 188.22 million units valued at RM99.28 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended positively, underpinned by good economic data, especially the declining jobless claims. 

He said the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 260 points while the Nasdaq added 108 points with the US 10-year yield inching higher at 3.79 per cent.

"On the domestic front, the FBM KLCI closed marginally lower on Thursday as foreign funds took profits during the afternoon session. 

"Daily volume traded remains low at the 3 billion threshold. This illustrates ongoing consolidation within the local bourse may take longer than anticipated," he told Bernama. 

Thong expects the index to hover within the 1,665-1,675 range today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB Group shed two sen each to RM10.64 and RM8.26, respectively, Public Bank weakened three sen to RM4.64, Tenaga Nasional rose two sen to RM14.68 and IHH Healthcare gained five sen to RM7.15.

As for the active counters, Lambo Group eased 1.5 sen to one sen, Artroniq and Globetronics inched down half-a-sen each to 11.5 sen and 71.5 sen, respectively, JKG Land climbed two sen to 12.5 sen and Zen Tech International was flat at one sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index depreciated 47.03 points to 12,412.87, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 40.18 points to 12,289.29, the FBMT 100 Index went down 47.56 points to 12,111.16, the FBM 70 Index dropped 31.59 points to 17,466.67, and the FBM ACE Index reduced 19.75 points to 5,178.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shaved 83.68 points to 19,592.18, the Energy Index edged down 11.21 points to 844.83, and the Plantation Index fell 11.28 points to 7,173.68, but the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.24 of-a-point to 177.13.

-- BERNAMA