KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia reversed yesterday’s gains to open marginally lower, in early trade, dampened by weak buying interest.
At 9.02 am, the benchmark index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.45 points weaker at 1,600.3 after opening 0.7 of a point easier at 1,602.05.
A dealer said regional sentiment was weighed down by the overnight fall in Wall Street as investors await the release of US job data later today.
AllianceDBS Research said the FBM KLCI would likely trade above the 1,605.73 level today in view of the fact that buying power was still stronger than selling pressure.
It said yesterday’s better performance indicated that market participants had chosen to play a buying game instead of staging an immediate follow through selling pressure to push the market lower.
The crossover to the psychological 1,600 points level suggested that market participants were willing to take the buying risk of acquiring stocks.
“Given the market developments of the last two days, the local bourse is expected to confine its trading range between 1,580 and 1,613. A rise above 1,613 should see an attempt to test the next resistance at 1,621,” it said in a note.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 9.09 points lower at 10,941.66, the FBMT100 Index trimmed 11.27 points to 10,685.25 and the FBM Ace decreased 9.31 points to 5,152.92.
However, the FBM Emas Syariah gained 2.03 points to 11,456.84 and FBM 70 earned 6.53 points to 11,647.38.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index fell 61.66 points to 14,030, the Plantation Index lost 32.26 points to 6,806.99 but the Industrial Index rose 15.91 points to 3,095.28.
Gainers led losers 91 to 73 while 130 counters remained unchanged, 1,501 untraded and 9 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 60.46 million shares worth RM23.5 million.
Among actives, Frontken, Tiger Synergy, iDimension and IFCA were all flat at 16 sen, nine sen, 13 sen and 71 sen, respectively.
Among heavyweights, Public Bank rose two sen to RM17.76 but Maybank and Maxis lost five sen and two sen each to RM8.42 and RM6.56, respectively.
Both TNB and Axiata were unchanged at RM11.20 and RM5.92, respectively.--BERNAMA