KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Wednesday on profit-taking activities after yesterday’s strong gains and amid weaker Wall Street performance overnight.
The US market plunged overnight as fears on the US regional banking sector returned ahead of Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later today.
Similarly, European markets were lower ahead of the Fed’s interest rate decision.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 367.17 points, or 1.08%, to 33,684.53, the S&P 500 lost 48.29 points, or 1.16%, to 4,119.58 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 132.09 points, or 1.08%, to 12,080.51.
“Following the negative performance in Wall Street, the FBM KLCI could see profit taking and hover above the support of 1,393 points,” Apex said.
At 9.16am, the benchmark index fell 5.47 points, or 0.38% to 1,420.64. It opened 2.21 points lower at 1,423.90.
Among the decliners, Rapid fell 60 sen to RM17.36, PETRONAS Dagangan lost 32 sen to RM22.22, PETRONAS Gas eased 28 sen to RM16.94 and Carlsberg slid 22 sen to RM21.10.
Heineken rose 14 sen to RM28.14, MBM Resources added 10 sen to RM3.63, MCE Holdings gained 10 sen to RM1.97 and South Malaysia Industries climbed 8.5 sen to 92.5 sen.
Rakuten Trade reckoned buying activities to recede today ahead of another public holiday tomorrow hence expect the index to hover between the 1,420-1,430 range.
“We believe the oil & gas stocks to experience more headwinds today following the decline in crude prices on expectations of another rate hike on the back of weak demand from China that saw the Brent crude dipped to around the US$75/barrel,” it said. – The Star