KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 ― Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-morning today, as profit-taking emerged in selected industrial products and services, telecommunications and media counters amid cautious sentiment in the regional markets, dealers said.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 4.85 points to 1,494.53 from yesterday's closing of 1,499.38.
The market bellwether opened 4.07 points weaker at 1,495.31.
Market breadth remained negative with losers leading gainers 364 to 263, while 366 counters were unchanged, 1,191 untraded, and 10 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.10 billion units worth RM654.37 million.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were mixed on Wednesday following sideways trade on Wall Street in reaction to disappointing earnings from Goldman Sachs, with traders now bracing for the widely expected Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy decision.
“The yen steadily reversed its losses amid market positioning heading into the BoJ policy announcement with increased speculation about a possible hawkish surprise. Most discussions on the BoJ rest on whether there will be further tweaks to the yield curve control framework or a complete abandonment of the policy altogether,” he told Bernama.
On the macro front, he said tailwinds for risk assets in China were expected after better economic data.
“Oil prices traded higher as China's fourth-quarter gross domestic product fell less than expected, while industrial output growth for December also dropped less than feared. Traders could increase risk in Chinese assets as a better economic outlook is starting to gain consensus.
“This follows an easing in Covid infections with China's support to the economy, a potentially lower US yield and expectations of a weaker dollar in the coming quarters,” he added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank added 3.0 sen to RM8.81, while Public Bank slipped 3.0 sen to RM4.29, Petronas Chemicals dropped 12 sen to RM8.50, and CIMB and TNB fell 4.0 sen each to RM5.73 and RM9.38, respectively.
As for the actives, newly listed TT Vision surged 99 sen to RM1.33, DNeX rose 2.5 sen to 61 sen, Velesto earned half-a-sen to 19 sen, and BSL Corp shed 2.5 sen to 16 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 26.86 points to 10,798.21, the FBMT 100 Index shaved 27.34 points to 10,494.06, the FBM ACE Index slid 17.45 points to 5,465.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 31.19 points to 11,034.08, and the FBM 70 Index trimmed 6.20 points to 13,460.05.
Sector-wise, the Transportation and Logistics Index reduced 5.74 points to 918.13, the Financial Services Index dipped 19.87 points to 16,526.45, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.42 points to 187.22, and the Plantation Index erased 9.54 points to 6,892.30.
In contrast, the Energy Index rose 2.86 points to 823.43. ― Bernama