KUALA LUMPUR: Stocks in Bursa Malaysia and its regional peers traded lower at Friday opening, tracking losses in the US stock market following European Central Bank’s (ECB) move to cut its economic projections, a dealer said.
He said that the announcement had sparked concern on global growth.
At 9.01 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.32 of-a-point lower at 1,686.63 from Thursday’s close of 1,686.95.
The index opened 0.82 of-a-point weaker at 1,686.13.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 83 to 76, while 150 counters remained unchanged, 1,593 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 42.71 million shares worth RM22.24 million.
“Later today, the US is expected to release its jobs report and that will likely provide more clues for the market after the ECB announced the bank’s outlook. And recently China had revised down its growth target for 2019 to 6 per cent from 6.5 per cent.
“All this are not painting a rosy outlook for the Asian equity market,” the dealer said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga rose two sen each to RM9.55 and RM12.84, respectively, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM24.54 and RM9.18, respectively.
Of actives, Prestariang fell two sen to 52 sen, Sumatec and PDZ were flat at one sen and four sen, respectively, while Sasbadi was two sen better at 25.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index dropped 5.51 points to 11,7777.11, the FBMT 100 lost 2.86 points to 11,633.82
and the FBM 70 decreased 6.3 points to 14,201.98.
The FBM Ace Index advanced 12.64 points to 4,675.36 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 21.01 points to 11,769.01.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 36.12 points higher at 17,554.92, the Plantation Index erased 14.72 points to 7,278.03 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.3 points weaker at 169.54.
– BERNAMA