Bursa Malaysia opens higher, but retreats thereafter

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher, but retreated thereafter on mild profit-taking due to continued negative market sentiment over a global trade war, dealers said.

At 9.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.07 points to 1,694.55 from Thursday’s close of 1,695.62, after opening 0.85 point better at 1,696.47 today.

Market breadth was however negative with losers thumping gainers 115 to 79, with 126 unchanged, 1,588 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Volume stood at 68.77 million units valued at RM33.90 million.

Dealers said investors were cautious on the growth outlook ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina next week, with less expectation for progress in trade talks.

A dealer said despite yesterday’s positive move, the benchmark index’s technical outlook remained bearishly biased for now with indicators pointing towards a downtrend as there was still not enough stimulus to fuel the local market’s uptrend.

“Should the market sentiment improves from here, key levels of resistance to look for are at between 1,740 and 1,760,” the dealer said.

Meanwhile, another dealer said the negative bias today also due to the absence of any lead from Wall Street as they closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, adding to the cautious tone and struggling for direction as most investors remained on the sidelines.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell three sen to RM9.36, Public Bank added two sen to RM24.82, while TNB and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM14.78 and RM9.24, respectively.

Of actives, Sumatec gained half-a-sen to three sen, Sanichi rose two sen to 17 sen, TATT Giap was flat at 25 sen and Berjaya Corp declined half-a-sen to 28 sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 8.88 points to 11,787.28, the FBMT 100 Index declined 7.64 points to 11,631.78, the FBM 70 shed 10.27 points to 13,920.07 but the FBM Ace Index was 12.07 points better at 5,045.39.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 4.33 points to 11,852.43.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 11.39 points lower at 17,281.07, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.10 point to 173.07 and the Plantation Index was 0.74 point higher at 7,177.58.

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 RM165.70, RM165.70, RM165.80 and RM165.90 per gramme, respectively.

Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 30 contracts.

At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was down one sen at RM160.17 per gramme. — Bernama

Source: TheSunDaily