KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today in taking cue from the weaker overnight performance of Wall Street.
Wall Street snapped a six-day rally on disappointing results from Walmart Inc., as well as a late sell-off in technology stocks.
At 9.08 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.95 points lower at 1,857.20, after opening 1.94 points lower at 1,855.38 from Tuesday’s close of 1,855.99.
On broader market, losers led gainers 138 to 104, while 182 counters were unchanged, 1,476 untraded and 29 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 94.76 million shares worth RM51.09 million.
Maybank IB Research said as the overnight US markets closed lower after a long weekend, a spillover impact is expected on Bursa Malaysia with profit-taking activity likely to be extended today.
"Technically, we see the index ranging between 1,840 to 1,860 today. Downside supports are pegged at 1,796 and 1,825," it added.
TA Securities said further improvements in the external market environment, economic data and strong buying interest from local funds, was essential to supporting the index higher in the near-term
Among heavyweights, Maybank shed two sen to RM10.12, CIMB fell six sen to RM7.06, Petronas Chemicals eased one sen to RM8.09, while Tenaga and Public Bank were flat at RM15.72 and RM22.08 respectively.
Of the active counters, Hibiscus Petroleum and Sino Hua-An added one sen each to 99 sen and 57.5 sen respectively, Hibiscus warrant edged up half-a-sen to 8.5 sen, while Sumatec Resources and Sapura Energy were flat at eight sen and 69.5 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index fell 22.90 points to 13,227.90, the FBMT 100 Index was down 21.14 points to 12,932.81, the FBM 70 slipped 28.35 points to 16,235.70 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 14.38 points to 13,560.94.
The FBM Ace gained 10.36 points to 6,344.69.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 39.27 points lower at 17,742.54 and the Plantation Index slid 2.60 points to 8,057.84, while the Industrial Index added 1.81 points to 3,244.79.