KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Thursday as profit-taking activities continued.
At 9am, FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM) KLCI dipped 1.12 per cent or 0.5 points to 1,589.25 versus last Friday's close of 1,590.37.
At 9.30a.m. today, there were 145 gainers, 605 losers and 362 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.
Turnover was at 905.432 million shares valued at RM407.766 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the Wall Street ended mixed last Friday with heavy profit-taking in Nvidia shares as analysts raised concerns about the sustainability of its strong valuation.
On the domestic front, Thong said the FBM KLCI pared gains and ended in negative territory due to late selling.
"Despite increasing volatility, we maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook for the local market.
"Nonetheless, our long-term perspective is positive, backed by attractive valuations, robust corporate earnings, increasing FDI and improving economic conditions.
"As such, we expect bargain hunting to prevail and anticipate the benchmark index to trend within the range of 1,590-1,600 today," he told the Business Times.
On selected heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional Bhd was the leading laggard on the index, falling 10 sen to RM13.62 while Malayan Banking Bhd slipped two sen to RM9.74.
Top actives were Ingenieur Gudang Bhd, which rose 0.5 sen to seven sen, GDB Holdings Bhd gained 5.5 sen to 38.5 sen and JCY International Bhd shed three sen to 81.5 sen.