Bursa Malaysia opens higher but retreats thereafter

At 9.08 am, the benchmark FBM KLCI slipped 2.0 points to 1,623.96 versus Tuesday's close of 1,623.96.

The index opened 1.65 points higher at 1,625.61.

On the broader market, gainers led losers marginally 290 to 217, while 356 counters were unchanged, 1,374 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total volume stood at 1.46 billion shares worth RM256.47 billion.

Malacca Securities said the US stock markets retreated from their recent peak levels as the Dow (-0.4 per cent) snapped a seven-day winning streak due to the weaker retail sales (-3.0 per cent month-on-month) and manufacturing production (-4.1 per cent month-on-month) data in February 2021.

The Nasdaq rose 0.9 per cent, lifted by technology stocks.

Domestically, it believes the year-to-date low COVID-19 daily confirmed cases recorded on Tuesday may continue to drive market sentiment on the positive tone, but the upside may be capped by the overnight Wall Street mixed sentiment.

"Commodity wise, the Brent crude oil has seen a decline on renewed demand concerns due to a new wave of the pandemic cases in Europe, while the crude palm oil dropped on market expectations on production improvement.

"Although some of the recovery-theme sectors such as aviation and gaming have seen a mild pullback, we believe bargain-hunting activities will soon emerge, given the declining COVID-19 daily confirmed cases," it said, adding that traders may look into the consumers, construction and property sectors.

Besides, the technology sector may stage a mild rebound, tracking the overnight gains on Nasdaq.

Heavyweights, Axiata remained in the red, losing seven sen to RM3.78, while Public Bank and Maybank, dropping two sen each to RM4.29 and RM8.43, respectively.

Sime Darby declined five sen to RM2.43 after Tuesday's rally.

In contrast, Press Metal recovered six sen to RM10.06 and Nestle improved 90 sen to RM136.60.

Among actives, Pegasus was flat at three sen, while Borneo Oil, Compugates and Dynaciate added half-a-sen each to four sen, 3.5 sen and 15.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 4.53 points to 11,897.14, the FBMT 100 was 8.79 points weaker at 11,575.46, and the FBM Emas Shariah up 1.70 points to 13,181.67.

The FBM 70 expanded 9.35 points to 15,669.90 and the FBM ACE slipped 85.50 points to 10,661.55.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 18.95 points to 15,584.02, the Plantation Index inched up 14.33 points to 7,244.60, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.48 of-a-point to 192.47.