KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher before continuing on a downtrend, bucking Wall Street's strong performance last night.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.13 points to 1,477.05 compared to Thursday's close of 1,479.18.
The benchmark index saw a marginal improvement, opening at 1,480.18 with a one-point increase.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 231 to 137, while 230 counters were unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 451.32 million units worth RM111.47 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI maintained its downtrend as it closed just below the 1,480 level.
"We deem the selling had been excessive as fundamentals were all largely intact. "Nonetheless, overall sentiment may have been affected by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) move to investigate some political heavyweights and hopefully a rebound is happening soon, hence we expect the index to hover within the 1,480-,1490 range today," he told Business Times.
Thong added that the bloodbath amongst a selected group of small caps may persist as the contagion is spreading which will impact overall trading participation of retailers over the immediate term.
Meanwhile, Thong said the Wall Street closed broadly firmer from bargain hunting activities despite a mixed corporate earnings results.
He said this is coupled with the lower weekly claims for unemployment benefits indicating that the labour market is still robust thus no reason for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rate as yet with the US 10-year yield inching higher to 4.142 per cent.
Over in Hong Kong, he said the Hang Seng Index (HSI) rebounded as the recent sell-down may have been overdone.