KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was in negative territory today after US inflation data came in as expected, prompting offshore funds to continue their selling spree.
At 10.29 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.04 points to 1,602.16 from yesterday's close of 1,603.20.
The index opened 1.37 points lower at 1,601.83.
Market breadth was negative, with losers outpacing gainers 376 to 338, while 416 counters were unchanged.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed mixed as sentiment remained jittery amid the high expectations and market valuations.
On the home front, Thong said the FBM KLCI continued with its decline, back to around 1,600 amid persistent selling by foreign funds.
"We were indeed perplexed by the unrelenting foreign unloading that started in October rendering the local bourse short of liquidity."
"Nonetheless, we believe 1,600 to remain as a solid psychological support for now thus expect the index to hover within the 1,600-1,610 today," he said.
Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd went down 2.0 sen to RM10.10, Public Bank eased 1.0 sen to RM4.60, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd gave up 2.0 sen to RM8.09, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and IHH Healthcare Bhd eased 10 sen each to RM13.66 and RM7.06 respectively.
As for the active stocks, Zen Tech International Bhd and Matang Bhd inched down half-a-sen each to half-a-sen and 8.0 sen, TMK Chemical Bhd perked up 25 sen to RM2.00 while, Datasonic Group Bhd added 1.0 sen to 44 sen. Ends