Bursa Malaysia retreats to open lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated from its gains last week to open lower on Monday, taking its cue from the negative Wall Street performance amidst cautious sentiments.

At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.27 points to 1,472.92 from Friday's closing of 1,477.19.

The market bellwether opened 1.58 points lower at 1,475.61.

On the broader market, decliners surpassed gainers 182 versus 147, while 236 counters were unchanged, 1,698 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 174.95 million units worth RM67.09 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said the Wall Street retreated on Friday as concerns over rate hikes re-emerged ahead of the upcoming United States Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week.

"Nevertheless, despite the weak performance on Wall Street, we reckon stock accumulation would continue with more stability in the local political scene following the recent appointments of Deputy Ministers.

"We expect the index to trend in the 1,470-1,485 range today as sentiments may turn cautious ahead of the FOMC meeting," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, CIMB added two sen to RM5.67, while Maybank lost two sen to RM8.67, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals gave up five sen to RM8.48, and TNB inched down four sen to RM9.29.

Of the actives, Cengild Medical gained two sen to 49.5 sen, Icon rose one sen to 9.5 sen and PT Resources was down by half-a-sen to 49 sen, while MAG and Yew Lee stayed flat at 18.5 sen and 32 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 24.82 points to 10,582.59, the FBMT 100 Index reduced by 26.30 points to 10,282.55, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 43.16 points to 10,745.01, the FBM 70 slid by 18.90 points to 12,927.32, and the FBM ACE trimmed 2.73 points to 5,514.77.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 14.05 points higher at 16,509.09, the Plantation Index was 3.75 points lower at 6,724.13, the Industrial Products and Services Index dwindled 0.43 of-a-point to 181.16, and the Energy Index lessened by 0.26 of-a-point to 777.64.

-- BERNAMA