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KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened the year on a lower note, tracking weaker cues from Wall Street amid cautious sentiment due to a lack of new catalysts.
At 9.06am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 11.69 points, or 0.70%, to 1,668.42 from Wednesday’s close of 1,680.11. The benchmark index had opened 4.91 points lower at 1,675.20.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday in conjunction with the 2026 New Year’s Day holiday.
Market breadth was negative, with decliners outpacing gainers 165 to 75. A total of 237 counters were unchanged, 2,179 were untraded, and 18 were suspended.
Turnover amounted to 64.99 million shares valued at RM35.60 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended weaker on Wednesday on profit-taking activities towards the end of the year.
On the domestic front, he said the FBM KLCI might still benefit from local institutions’ buying support based on recent trends despite a net outflow of foreign investors from the local bourse.
“As such, we believe the local bourse is poised for more upside as the rebalancing of foreign funds is still ongoing. For today, we expect the index to hover within the 1,675-1,690 range,” he noted.
Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank fell six sen to RM10.42, CIMB lost 15 sen to RM8.10, Public Bank eased seven sen to RM4.47, Tenaga Nasional dropped four sen to RM13.68, and IHH Healthcare slid 10 sen to RM8.65.
On the most active list, TWL, Velesto, Reservoir Link and Bina Puri were all unchanged at 2.5 sen, 27.5 sen, 21 sen and 29.5 sen, respectively, while Mega Fortis added half a sen to 89.5 sen.
Among top gainers, Dutch Lady put on 30 sen to RM31.30, United Plantations added six sen to RM30.12, CJ Century gained 3.5 sen to 19 sen, Hap Seng rose three sen to RM2.20, and BM Greentech gained two sen to RM1.47.
Top decliners saw MPI falling 38 sen to RM31.86, SD Guthrie lost 10 sen to RM5.63, Atlan Holdings slipped eight sen to RM2.93, and Sime Darby fell seven sen to RM2.08.
On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index shed 63.43 points to 12,240.24, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 70.32 points to 12,037.09, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 41.36 points to 12,054.93.
The FBM Mid 70 Index dropped 34.86 points to 16,768.53, and the FBM ACE Index was down 0.24 of-a-point to 4,872.71.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slid 149.98 points to 19,553.37, the Energy Index dipped 0.42 of-a-point to 766.89, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.15 of-a-point to 173.47, and the Plantation Index lost 35.31 points to 8,289.58.

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