Bursa Malaysia opens easier

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on lack of buying interest and tracking the mixed overnight performance of Wall Street.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.27 points to 1,693.10 from Wednesday’s close of 1,695.37, after opening 0.78 point easier at 1,694.59 today.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 80 to 79, with 124 unchanged, 1,624 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Volume stood at 82.35 million units valued at RM36.48 million.

A dealer said local market sentiment is currently volatile as investors are still worried over external developments including the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China as well as Brexit uncertainties.

“It is expected that they (investors) are adopting a wait-and-see approach and trying to avoid risky assets stocks at the moment,” the dealer said.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Research in a note today said the immediate support levels to watch for are 1,680 and 1,650.

“Should the market sentiment improve from here, key levels of resistance to look for are 1,740 and 1,760,” it added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell three sen to RM9.37, Public Bank declined 12 sen to RM24.70 while Tenaga and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM14.80 and RM20.58 respectively.

Petronas Chemicals was four sen lower at RM9.29.

Of actives, AirAsia X was 1.5 sen weaker at 22.5 sen, Sapura Energy fell half-a-sen to 37 sen, while TATT Giap and Prestariang gained one sen each to 25 sen and 65.5 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index lost 21.43 points to 11,795.19, the FBMT 100 Index declined 21.58 points to 11,634.88 the FBM 70 shed 48.88 points to 13,974.41 but the FBM Ace Index was 14.55 points better at 5,014.48.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 10.08 points to 11,873.57.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 55.93 points lower at 17,249.38, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.21 point to 173.28 and the Plantation Index was 4.39 points higher at 7,196.37.

Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded in the early session today.

At 9.50 am, November 2018, December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019 were untraded at RM165.00, RM165.00, RM165.10 and RM165.20 per gramme respectively.

Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 29 contracts.

At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was up 21 sen at RM159.98 per gramme. — Bernama

Source: TheSunDaily