KUALA LUMPUR: Rising Covid-19 cases and uninspiring Wall Street weighed on investor sentiment on Bursa Malaysia early Wednesday.
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At 9.35am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.97 of a point or 0.06% to 1,587.28. Turnover was 1.19 billion shares valued at RM609.12mil. Decliners beat advancers 382 to 267 while 402 counters were unchanged.
At Bursa on Tuesday, local retail investors were net buyers at RM51mil but local institutions were net sellers at RM49.5mil and foreign funds at RM1.5mil.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 261.62 points, or 1.88%, to 13,633.50, while the S&P 500 lost 28 points, or 0.67%, to 4,164.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pared its earlier losses and closed slightly higher, rising 19.8 points, or 0.06%, to 34,133.03.
MSCI’s benchmark for global equity markets fell 0.81% to close at 697.60.
Brent crude futures rose US$1.32 to US$68.88 a barrel, while US crude futures climbed US$1.20 to US$65.69.
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Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade expects the KLCI to remain stuck in its ongoing correction and anticipate the index to hover around the 1,580-1,590 range due to the absence of buying catalysts.
The rising Covid-19 cases especially in Selangor has prompted the government to reimpose the movement control order in most parts of the state on Thursday.
Nestle fell 30 sen to RM135.50 while KL Kepong shed 14 sen to RM21.94 and Petronas Gas six sen lower at RM15.66.
As for tech and chip makers, Vitrox fell 24 sen to RM15.50 and Unisem 11 sen to RM7.79.
TransOcean extended its gains, up 30 sen to RM135.50, Dataprep 35 sen to RM1.85, Gopeng 20 sen to RM1.33 and TGL 20 sen to RM2.43.
Stronger crude oil prices saw Hengyuan gain 12 sen to RM5.72 and Petron seven sen to RM4.74.-The Star