BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS LOWER AMID WALL STREET'S MIXED PERFORMANCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower today amid Wall Street's overnight mixed performance as sentiments remained jittery amid the high expectations and market valuations.

At 9.19 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.39 points to 1,598.81 from yesterday’s close of 1,603.20. 

The index opened 1.37 points lower at 1,601.83.

Market breadth was negative, with losers outpacing gainers 225 to 219, while 345 counters were unchanged, 1,689 untraded, and 39 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 458.76 million units valued at RM207.88 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower, the Nasdaq notched another record high as many expect the US Federal Reserve to reduce interest rate underpinned by November’s consumer price index (CPI) figure that came in within expectations.

The November US CPI stood at 2.7 per cent, higher from 2.6 per cent the previous month. Core CPI, on the other hand, was sustained at 3.3 per cent for three consecutive months from 3.2 per cent in August, suggesting the inflation rate remained sticky.

"The US 10-year yield inched higher at 4.275 per cent.

"Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (HSI) eased further as traders are waiting for more details from China’s economic conference which kicked off yesterday. As a result, the HSI slid from the intra-day high of almost 21,000 on Tuesday to currently at the 20,100 threshold," he told Bernama. 

Back home, Thong said while the FBM KLCI continued with its decline, back to around 1,600 amid persistent selling by foreign funds, he is indeed perplexed by the unrelenting foreign unloading that started in October rendering the local bourse short of liquidity.

"Nonetheless, we expect 1,600 to remain as a solid psychological support for now, thus the index is likely to hover within 1,600-1,610 today," he added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank went down 2.0 sen to RM10.10, Public Bank eased 1.0 sen to RM4.60, CIMB gave up 2.0 sen to RM8.09, Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare eased 10 sen each to RM13.66 and RM7.06 respectively.

As for the active stocks, Zen Tech and Matang inched down half-a-sen each to half-a-sen and 8.0 sen, TMK Chemical perked up 25 sen to RM2.00, Datasonic added 1.0 sen to 44 sen, while AIMFLEX was flat at 15 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 23.74 points to 12,273.74, the FBMT 100 Index erased 27.25 points to 11,952.06, the FBM 70 Index shrank 21.78 points to 18,401.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 12.99 points to 12,256.25, and the FBM ACE Index decreased by 1.17 points to 5,292.08.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 74.24 points to 19,078.42, the Plantation Index trimmed 13.48 points to 7,627.71, the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 0.16 of-a-point to 173.84, but the Energy Index expanded 3.15 points to 825.44.

-- BERNAMA