BURSA MALAYSIA TURNS LOWER SOON AFTER OPENING SLIGHTLY FIRMER

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia, which opened slightly up, turned lower soon after on cautious trading sentiment following the negative Wall Street performance overnight.  

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.71 of-a-point to 1,632.83 from Wednesday's close of 1,633.54.  

The index opened 0.16 of-a-point higher at 1,633.70. 

In the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 373 to 143, with 337 counters unchanged, 1,595 untraded and 16 suspended.

Turnover totalled 313.28 million units worth RM179.43 million.

Wall Street ended on a mixed note on Wednesday as technology stocks were rattled by the latest move by the United States (US) to curb chip exports to China coupled with former US President Donald Trump’s demand for protection money from Taiwan.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said that although the brokerage expects the upside momentum to continue today, buying might somehow be muted due to the growing trade tension between the US and China.

“Nonetheless, we expect the index to possibly hover within the 1,630-1,640 range today.

“Meanwhile, crude oil prices rose with Brent crude surpassing US$85 per barrel on the back of lower inventory attributed to a higher draw of stocks over the past two weeks,” he added.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank rose four sen each to RM10.12 and RM4.21, respectively, CIMB added one sen to RM7.15, Hong Leong Bank advanced 10 sen to RM19.14, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.35, Tenaga Nasional shed six sen to RM14.44 and Press Metal slipped 18 sen to RM5.81. 

Among the most active counters, Hubline and Ekovest both edged up half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and 56 sen, respectively, Fajarbaru rose 1.5 sen to 55.5 sen, and WCT was flat at RM1.23. Meanwhile, MYEG trimmed two sen to RM1.03, and Aimflex and Metronic Global eased half-a-sen each to 20 sen and two sen, respectively.

On the index front, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 31.52 points to 12,646.89, the FBMT 100 Index erased 26.70 points to 12,218.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 66.30 points to 13,020.62, the FBM 70 Index fell 119.14 points to 18,859.65 and the FBM ACE Index weakened 8.69 points to 5,993.53.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 56.63 points to 17,991.80, the Energy Index added 0.13 of-a-point to 972.51, the Plantation Index slid 9.55 points to 7,065.16, and the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased 1.42 points to 199.37.

-- BERNAMA