KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was lower in early trade with investors sustaining selling activity in the absence of strong supportive buying interest despite opening marginally higher.
At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.72 points down at 1,566.82, after opening 0.55 point higher at 1,573.09.
Decliners led gainers 183 to 100, while 143 counters remained unchanged, 1,375 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 117.33 million shares worth RM50.86 million.
Alliance DBS research said the analysis of overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure and expects the FBM KLCI to trade below 1,569.19 (yesterday’s low) today.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 37.08 points to 10,730.89, the FBMT100 Index slipped 40.39 points to 10,469.48 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 50.83 points to 11,118.22.
The FBM 70 was down 52.30 points to 11,441.12 and the FBM Ace depreciated 20.01 points to 5,166.05. On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index declined 30.16 points to 14,042.47, the Industrial Index shed 8.17 points for 3,048.13 while the Plantation Index gained 0.83 point to 6,871.20. Among actives, Marco Holdings eased one sen to 14 sen, Reach Energy shed half-a-sen to four sen and AirAsia slid three sen to RM1.08.
RGB International added half-a-sen to 11.5 sen and Frontken was traded flat at 18.5 sen.
Among heavyweights, Public Bank slipped 10 sen to RM17.88, TNB and Sime Darby slid four sen each to RM10.36 and RM7.86 respectively, while Axiata eased 12 sen to RM5.61.
Maybank was traded flat at RM8.19.--BERNAMA