KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 ― Bursa Malaysia remained in the red at mid-morning on selling pressure across the board, tracking the overnight global stock markets’ decline amid worries over the United States’ (US) aggressive monetary policy tightening, dealers said.
At 11.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.19 points to 1,501.86 from Tuesday’s close of 1,512.05.
The market bellwether had opened 14.04 points lower at 1,498.01.
Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday for the National Day holiday.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 532 to 201, while 319 counters were unchanged, 1,236 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.05 billion units worth RM689.42 million.
In a note today, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said Wall Street ended lower as concerns over interest rate hikes and slowing economic growth continued to plague the overall sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 280 points and the Nasdaq declined by 67 points, while the US 10-year yield closed higher at almost 3.20 per cent.
As such, the local bourse is expected to encounter some headwinds today as the regional markets ended on a mixed note yesterday, it said.
Meanwhile, the brokerage said that Bank Negara Malaysia is expected to raise its overnight policy rate by 25 basis points during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting next week, thus some buying interest may emerge in banking stocks.
“For today, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend within the 1,500-1,520 range, with some weakening in the broader market.
“Additionally, yesterday’s reports on Maxis and U Mobile rejecting a stake in Digital Nasional Bhd may cause some uncertainties within the telco sector,” it noted.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank shed four sen each to RM8.93 and RM4.67, respectively, CIMB rose 13 sen to RM5.50 and IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM6.21, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.80.
Of the actives, Jade Marvel Group slipped 17 sen to 33.5 sen, MNC Wireless eased half-a-sen to five sen and Dagang Nexchange shed two sen to 84 sen, while Serba Dinamik and Vortex were flat at three sen and 18 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 79.78 points to 10,620.87, the FBMT 100 Index declined 74.36 points to 10,375.07, the FBM 70 slipped 106.39 points to 12,606.05, the FBM ACE went down 96.60 points to 4,813.84 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 115.01 points to 10,698.45.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 106.24 points lower at 7,087.43, the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 1.10 points to 181.10, the Energy Index shed 12.18 points to 716.36 and the Financial Services Index gave up 18.43 points to 16,783.49. ― Bernama
