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KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia reversed its gains from yesterday to open lower this morning due to profit-taking, taking its cue from the choppy trading on Wall Street.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI eased by 1.40 points to 1,482.57 from yesterday's close of 1,483.97.
The key index opened 1.17 points weaker at 1,482.80.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 145 to 129, while 193 counters were unchanged, 1,746 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 152.78 million units worth RM53.62 million.
In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said US stock markets edged lower yesterday, with the Dow Jones Index easing by 0.5% due to the hotter-than-expected inflation data that came in at 6.4% in January 2023 – triggering further concerns that the path of normalising inflation will be bumpy.
The brokerage also believes that global sentiment will remain tepid, at least for the near term while waiting for fresh catalysts.
Back home, investors may continue to focus on the earnings reporting season as well as the re-tabling of Budget 2023.
As for commodities, oil benchmark Brent crude stayed above US$85 per barrel, while the crude palm oil price hovered above RM3,900 per tonne.
“Meanwhile, the construction and building material sector may gain traction ahead of the re-tabling of Budget 2023 next week.
“Additionally, the electrical vehicle (EV)-related sector may shine following the International Trade and Industry Ministry's announcement of its target to provide up to 4,000 EV charging points in Malaysia,” it said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM8.80 and RM5.90, respectively, Public Bank rose 1.0 sen to RM4.20 and CIMB added 4.0 sen to RM5.45, while Petronas Chemicals lost 3.0 sen to RM8.12.
As for the actives, both Hong Seng and Dataprep gained half-a-sen to 21.5 sen and 24 sen, respectively, Trive Property increased by 1.0 sen to 8.0 sen and Kim Teck went up 2.5 sen to 26.5 sen, while PUC was flat at 3.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 3.81 points to 10,783.94, the FBMT 100 Index went down 4.53 points to 10,452.88, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 19.17 points to 11,092.71.
The FBM 70 Index advanced 16.95 points to 13,592.09 and the FBM ACE Index was 10.41 points firmer at 5,702.08.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index narrowed by 4.34 points to 6,912.20 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.24 of-a-point to 189.29, while the Energy Index rose 1.35 points to 898.07 and the Financial Services Index gained 24.24 points to 16,180.74.
The ringgit eased against the US dollar this morning, as the greenback stayed firm despite the softer US inflation print for January, said an analyst.
At 9am, the ringgit fell to 4.3570/3620 versus the greenback from yesterday's close of 4.3455/3495.
A dealer said the US consumer price index rose past market expectations to 6.4% year-on-year but posted the slowest increase since 2021.
He said the softer inflation print failed to match hopes and raised concerns that it is not coming down fast enough.
The market now expects US Federal Reserve policymakers to stay hawkish and be in favour of further rate hikes, which would propel the US Treasury bond yields and the US dollar further.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the ringgit will struggle against the backdrop of higher US Treasury yields as the market prices one additional US rate hike in June.
“Higher US yields make local bonds and other local assets less attractive, hence there is less international demand for the ringgit to buy local assets,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ringgit also traded lower against a basket of major currencies, except against the Japanese yen.
It depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.2794/2834 from 3.2764/2799 at yesterday's close and fell against the British pound to 5.3051/3112 from 5.2963/3012 yesterday.
The local currency also slipped vis-a-vis the euro to 4.6781/6835 from 4.6762/6805 yesterday but appreciated versus the Japanese yen to 3.2824/2866 from 3.2918/2951 previously. – Bernama, February 15, 2023