Bursa Malaysia Opens Flat In Cautious Trade

By Harizah Hanim Mohamed

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened flat and proceeded to retreat in early trade today, reflecting a lack of catalysts in the market after a downbeat Wall Street performance last Friday.

At 9.15 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.22 points to 1,522.64 from last Friday's close of 1,525.86. The benchmark index was 0.60 of a point better at 1,526.46 at the opening bell.

Turnover stood at 266.08 million shares worth RM171.57 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed lower last Friday as US markets took a breather following a decent performance for the week.

“Back home, the FBM KLCI maintained its stability to end positively (last week) amid continuous buying support by local institutions. For today, we expect bargain hunting to persist and expect the index to trend within the 1,520-1,530 range,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank rose five sen to RM9.57, Public Bank and IHH lost one sen each to RM4.30 and RM6.56, respectively, while TNB and CIMB were both unchanged at RM13.78 and RM5.51.

Active counters were led by Nexg, which added one sen to 50.5 sen, followed by Pharmaniaga and Silver Ridge, both accumulating three sen to 18.5 sen and 23 sen respectively, while TWL was flat at 2.5 sen.

On the broader index board, the FBM Emas Index erased 32.39 points to 11,447.44, the FBMT 100 Index removed 31.72 points to 11,209.97, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 56.33 points to 11,481.54.

The FBM 70 Index went down 82.02 points to 16,615.70, while the FBM ACE Index trimmed 18.82 points to 4,652.97.

By sector, the Financial Services Index put on 21.27 points to 17,376.11, the Energy Index edged down 0.73 of a point to 738.40, and the Plantation Index slipped 7.03 points to 7,434.86. The Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.90 points to 153.48.

-- BERNAMA