Bursa Malaysia opens lower in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened lower in the early trade today on the back of persisting volatility in the market.

At 9.40am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.88 points to 1,533.04 from 1,542.92 at Monday's close after opening 1.22 points easier at 1,541.70.

The market was closed yesterday for the Thaipusam public holiday.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 453 to 168, while 296 counters were unchanged, 1,331 untraded and 27 others suspended.

Meanwhile, the ringgit weakened against the US dollar at the opening today over markets expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may raise interest rate, which would lend some support to the dollar, said an analyst.

At 9.01am, the local currency was trading at 4.1925/1960 against the US dollar compared with 4.1815/1835 at Monday’s close.

Bank Islam Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the sharp rise of the 10-year US Treasury note yield to 1.88% has reinvigorated the view that the Fed is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate in March.

“This will certainly provide a boost to the US dollar and admittedly a weaker ringgit,” he told Bernama.

He said Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee’s first meeting of the year perhaps would shed some light on BNM’s assessment of the economy and what it could mean in respect to overnight policy rate.

“For now, expect the local note linger on a weaker bias,” he added.

The ringgit opened slightly lower versus the Singapore dollar to 3.1038/1080 from Monday’s close of 3.1020/1039 and depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.6541/6579 from 3.6523/6544.

However, it strengthened against the British pound to 5.7005/7053 from 5.7207/7234 and increased vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7493/7532 from 4.7774/7796 previously. – Bernama, January 19, 2022