KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on weaker demand as trading sentiment remained cautious ahead of the release of China’s Caixin purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for September today. At 9.25am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 16.9 points to 1,618.47 after opening 8.51 points easier at 1,626.86.
Losers outpaced gainers by 217 to 127 while 182 counters were unchanged, 1,307 untraded and 18 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 210.26 million shares worth RM143.74 million.
A dealer said buying demand was also affected by concerns over slowing global economy and uncertainty about the US Federal monetary policy.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 90.97 points to 11,199.3, FBMT100 Index fell 94.24 points to 11,913.29 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 72.64 points lower at 11,854.66.
The FBM 70 was down 33.68 points to 12,292.65 and the FBM Ace eased 2.47 points to 5,537.43.
On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index fell 31.99 points to 6,962.47, Finance Index declined 142.06 points to 14,046.95 and the Industrial Index lost 19.95 points to 3,091.16.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata eased 10 sen each to RM8.42 and RM5.96, respectively, Public Bank fell 22 sen to RM17.90 and Tenaga declined two sen to RM12.16.
Among the actives, UEM Sunrise was five sen better at RM1.12, IFCA appreciated 1.5 sen to 88.5 sen while AirAsia lost a sen to RM1.36.--BERNAMA