KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower continuing on its downtrend and mirroring Wall Street's performance ahead of key US data.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 1.30 points to 1,604.05 from Wednesday's close of 1,605.35.
The benchmark index opened 2.14 points lower at 1,603.21.
On the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 416 to 144, with 282 counters unchanged.
Turnover was 414.44 million shares worth RM237.97 million.
Malacca Securities Research said the FBM KLCI continued to pullback for the fourth session as profit taking activities were observed within telecommunication heavyweights.
Similarly, it said the US stock markets ended lower amid rising US Treasury yield and concerns over the timing and scale of the potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
Thus, the firm believes that the selling pressure may spillover towards stocks on the local front.
"Meanwhile, traders will be watching the key data such as US gross domestic product (GDP) and core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index this week, where it will potentially dictate the Fed's interest rate directions going forward. "We still expect the buying interest to persist within the data centre theme amid rising investment in this segment."Key sectors that will be under this theme include technology, property, construction, building materials and utilities," it said in a note today.
The firm said traders will be focusing on the final week of corporate earnings and re-assess companies with solid quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth for buying opportunities.
For the corporate earnings, it noted that MYEG Services Bhd and Farm Fresh Bhd (FFB) have shown decent growth.