KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Monday, mirroring the sharp losses seen in Wall Street.
At 9.00 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 5.92 points to 1,647.20 from last Friday's close of 1,653.12.
Across the broader market, losers thumped gainers 487 to 90, with 256 counters unchanged, 2,454 untraded and 16 suspended.
Turnover totalled 471.43 million units valued at RM519.71 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the Wall Street extended its losses, dragged down by technology stocks amid rising economic uncertainties following the mixed key economic data; the nonfarm payrolls (NFP) came in lower, but the jobless rate improved.
Back home, Thong said the FBM KLCI remained stuck within its downtrend channel to close near the 1,650 level.
"We reckon the prevailing market weakness can be due to the ongoing probe by MACC on YTL's related company. For the week, YTL Corp shed 16 per cent while YTL Power lost 10 per cent," he told the Business Times. Though this is temporary, Thong believes sentiment remains in cautious mode as depicted by the low volume traded of 2 billion shares last Friday.
"Nonetheless, we hope the debut of 99 Speedmart Mart Retail Holdings Bhd today will inject some excitement to the local bourse. For today, we expect the index to hover within the 1,650-1,660 range," he added.