Bursa Malaysia Slightly Lower On Early Selling In Heavyweights

By Zufazlin Baharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower on Thursday dragged down by selling in the heavyweights, particularly Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 4.19 points to 1,583.61 from yesterday’s close of 1,587.80.

The benchmark index began the day 1.28 points lower at 1,586.52.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 224 to 104. Meanwhile, 254 counters were unchanged, 1,815 were untraded, and 83 were suspended.

Turnover reached 349.26 million shares valued at RM244.23 million.

Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional's losses pulled the composite index down by 1.97 points or 1.40 per cent.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street had closed higher yesterday with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high as tech stocks led the way underpinned by President Donald Trump’s latest initiatives on artificial intelligence and the impending corporate tax cuts. 

“Although it is still early days, we believe traders took the opportunity to lock in profits.

“For today, we anticipate the index to trend within the 1,585-1595 range with hopes that the recent buying of blue chips may eventually instigate some retail interests back to the smaller cap space,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank decreased three sen to RM4.37, Tenaga Nasional was weaker by 10 sen to RM13.78, Maybank slid two sen to RM10.34, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM7.18 and CIMB climbed one sen to RM8.07.

Among active stocks, Oriental Kopi Holdings gained 35 sen to 79 sen from its IPO price of 44 sen, Harvest Miracle Capital and Velesto Energy widened half-a-sen each to 18 sen and 20 sen, Pertama Digital climbed one sen to 20 sen while Yew Lee Pacific remained unchanged at 55.5 sen.

On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index lost 21.16 points to 12,012.60, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 21.11 points to 11,820.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 22.70 points to 12,012.60 and the FBM ACE Index fell 9.63 points to 5,228.96.

However, the FBM 70 Index perked up 5.63 points to 18,132.44.

By sector, the Energy Index depreciated 1.37 points to 853.65, the Financial Services Index decreased 20.36 points to 18,925.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.21 of-a-point to 170.00, while the Plantation Index rose 4.57 points to 7,426.27.

-- BERNAMA