Bursa Malaysia Slips On Profit-taking In Early Trade

By Abdul Hamid A Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened slightly firmer on Wednesday but reversed course within minutes, with the benchmark slipping on spillover profit-taking from yesterday’s sell-off despite overnight gains on Wall Street.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.26 points to 1,578.33 after closing at 1,581.59 yesterday.

The index had opened 0.18 of-a-point higher at 1,581.77.

Market breadth turned negative, with 176 decliners edging out 164 advancers. Another 264 counters were unchanged, 2,035 untraded and 69 suspended.

Turnover was 167.99 million shares worth RM120.82 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed firmer as traders brushed aside US President Donald Trump’s removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

“Instead, the market is focusing on earnings from Nvidia later today, while the US 10-year yield inched up to 4.26 per cent,” he told Bernama.

Back home, Thong said the FBM KLCI, faced with mounting selling pressure, slid to just above the 1,580 threshold.

“The sell-down was rather drastic amid a regional sell-off, as illustrated by the spike in daily trading volume to above the four billion level.

“A quick rebound is possible. As such, we expect the index to remain range-bound between 1,580 and 1,590 today,” he added.

Among heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional added 6.0 sen to RM13.50. Maybank eased 2.0 sen to RM9.73, Public Bank slipped 6.0 sen to RM4.36, CIMB Group shed 1.0 sen to RM7.39, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.77.

In actively traded stocks, Magma Group rose 3.5 sen to 34 sen, Vetece Holdings gained 2.0 sen to 32 sen, Tanco Holdings added 1.0 sen to 73 sen, while Pharmaniaga and Avangaad inched up half-a-sen each to 17.5 sen and 30.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM 70 Index advanced 33.33 points to 16,486.50, the FBM ACE Index added 10.79 points to 4,762.44, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 3.88 points to 11,681.16.

Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Index slipped 9.44 points to 11,724.83, and the FBMT 100 Index declined 12.25 points to 11,493.97.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index rose 1.28 points to 748.48. The Financial Services Index fell 52.80 points to 18,036.69, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 1.07 points to 162.55, and the Plantation Index eased 3.73 points to 7,570.40.

-- BERNAMA