Bursa Malaysia Slips In Early Trade On Wall Street Cues

By Abdul Hamid A Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened slightly firmer on Tuesday but reversed course within minutes, with the benchmark slipping as local shares tracked Wall Street’s overnight pullback.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.55 points at 1,600.90, from Monday’s close of 1,602.45.

The index had opened 0.45 of-a-point higher at 1,602.90.

Market breadth was slightly negative, with 193 decliners outpacing 159 advancers. A total of 269 counters were unchanged, 2,007 untraded and 21 suspended.

Turnover stood at 170.41 million shares worth RM83.21 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed weaker as investors were reluctant to take long positions after United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that a September interest rate cut was likely but not assured.

“The Dow Jones slipped 0.8 per cent to 45,282.47, the S\&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent and the Nasdaq eased 0.22 per cent,” he told Bernama.

On the local front, the FBM KLCI closed higher on Monday, breaking the 1,600 psychological barrier on decent volume.

“We believe that holding above the 1,600 level could provide momentum to test 1,650 in the near term. For today, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within the 1,600 to 1,620 range,” he added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank added 2.0 sen to RM9.87, Public Bank eased 2.0 sen to RM4.49, CIMB shed 5.0 sen to RM7.45, Tenaga Nasional lost 6.0 sen to RM13.66, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.79.

In actively traded stocks, Magma Group rose 2.5 sen to 24 sen and Avillion Bhd edged up half-a-sen to 7.5 sen. Velesto Energy, NEXG Bhd and Mestron Holdings slipped half-a-sen each to 19.5 sen, 48.5 sen and 24 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 11.00 points to 11,859.06, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 11.67 points to 11,637.12, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 4.87 points to 11,795.88, the FBM 70 Index gave up 18.47 points to 16,598.01 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 20.00 points to 4,740.47.

By sector, the Financial Services Index shed 14.61 points to 18,290.68 and the Energy Index declined 0.56 of-a-point to 745.20.

The Plantation Index gained 9.51 points to 7,648.61, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was unchanged at 164.09.

-- BERNAMA