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KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower today, tracking weaker performance on Wall Street, where all three major US indices ended well below their intraday highs after a volatile session.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said traders remained focused on the escalating conflict in West Asia and the pullback in crude oil prices.
“Brent crude continues to decline and is currently trending below US$88 (RM345.31) per barrel.
“Earlier, a statement from US president Donald Trump that the war with Iran would end soon triggered a drop in crude oil prices,” he told Bernama.
Despite the prevailing uncertainty, he said the decline in crude oil prices could serve as a catalyst for regional markets to trend higher.
“Hence, we expect the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to hover within the 1,700 to 1,715 range today,” he said.
He added that crude palm oil had climbed to around the RM4,600 per tonne level and could attract buying interest in plantation stocks.
At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI eased 0.44 of-a-point to 1,701.24 from yesterday’s close of 1,701.68.
The benchmark index opened 1.58 points lower at 1,700.10.
Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 211 to 185. A total of 274 counters were unchanged, 1,996 untraded and 10 suspended.
Turnover stood at 234.87 million shares worth RM141.09 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose 14 sen to RM11.80, Public Bank gained 3 sen to RM4.78 and CIMB Group added 12 sen to RM7.97, while Tenaga Nasional fell 4 sen to RM14.10 and IHH Healthcare lost 6 sen to RM8.95.
On the most active list, AirAsia X surged 20 sen to RM1.31, while Pegasus Heights, TWL Holdings, Capital A and Pharmaniaga were flat at 0.5 sen, 2.5 sen, 45 sen and 24 sen, respectively.
Among top gainers, Petronas Dagangan rose 22 sen to RM21.72, KESM Industries gained 18 sen to RM2.97, while MISC and LPI Capital added 10 sen each to RM8.42 and RM14.30, respectively. Press Metal Aluminium Holdings advanced 9 sen to RM7.67.
Top losers included Nestle, which fell RM1 to RM103, Malaysian Pacific Industries slid 48 sen to RM30.06, Petronas Gas declined 16 sen to RM17.44, IGB eased 12 sen to RM3.74 and Concrete Engineering Products slipped 12 sen to RM1.10.
On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 2.88 points to 12,267.71, the FBM Emas Index slipped 3.04 points to 12,424.76, the FBM 70 Index shed 2.58 points to 17,062.12 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 20.19 points to 12,081.46. The FBM ACE Index rose 5.18 points to 4,364.40.
By sector, the financial services index gained 65.93 points to 20,742.98 and the industrial products and services index edged up 0.09 of-a-point to 172.17, while the plantation index fell 35.00 points to 8,332.49 and the energy index dropped 3.67 points to 777.88.

MatchPoint Times

Bursa opens marginally lower after volatile Wall Street session

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