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KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened mixed this morning as the key index declined by 0.08% after 10 minutes of trading, weighed down by selling in selected heavyweights led by IHH Healthcare and PPB Group.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FBM KLCI fell 1.26 points to 1,526.36, from yesterday’s close of 1,527.62.
The index opened 0.59 of-a-point higher at 1,528.21.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers at 243 versus 184, while 271 counters were unchanged, 1,538 untraded and 31 others suspended.
The ringgit opened slightly lower against the US dollar today, as buying sentiment for the local unit deteriorated after Malaysia reported its second-highest daily Covid-19 cases on record yesterday.
Yesterday, the daily infections tally rose to 13,034, bringing the nation’s cumulative number of cases to 964,918.
At 9.05am, the local note eased to 4.2210/2245 versus the greenback from 4.2205/2250 at yesterday’s close.
However, ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US dollar has started to fall against the ringgit.
“The decline was expected by the market, as it is natural that investors want to take profit after every directional movement,” he told Bernama.
On top of that, he said the ringgit had touched a major resistance around the 4.2400 level against the greenback, which added to the selling pressure.
From a technical point of view, Diniz said the ringgit could rise to the 4.1700 level versus the US dollar, where it could find some buying pressure and possibly resume the previous uptrend.
At the opening bell, the local note traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies, except against the euro, where it strengthened to 4.9707/9754 from yesterday’s close of 4.9781/9834.
Meanwhile, the ringgit depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.8315/8355 from 3.8281/8325, declined against the Singapore dollar to 3.1103/1133 from 3.1026/1064 and weakened against the British pound to 5.8122/8177 from 5.8028/8090 yesterday. – Bernama, July 23, 2021
