KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): Bursa Malaysia extended Monday’s (March 14) profit-taking to open lower, taking in most indices led by technology, while tracking the lower close of the Nasdaq Composite on Wall Street, analysts said.
At 9.12am, the benchmark FBM KLCI was 9.89 points easier at 1,557.55, compared with 1,567.44 at Monday’s close.
The benchmark index opened 2.54 points weaker at 1,564.90.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 307 versus 92, while 221 counters were unchanged, 1,681 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 155.91 million units valued at RM103.6 million.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said the Nasdaq, which was down by 262 points, closed in a technical bear market for the first time since March 2020.
A decline in China’s stocks following the latest uptick in Covid-19 cases and new lockdowns in the country weighed on global risk appetite, he said in a note on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said for the local equity market on Tuesday, it is reckoned that the benchmark index would trend higher, attributed to continuous support from foreign funds.
“The KLCI is expected to move within the 1,560-1,580 range,” he said.
On commodities, profit-taking activities saw the crude palm oil price dip below the RM7,000 per tonne level, while the Brent crude price dropped to US$107 (about RM450.52) per barrel on the back of another lockdown in Shenzhen, China.
Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Public Bank Bhd were three sen firmer at RM8.95 and RM4.47 respectively, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd shed 17 sen to RM9.42, IHH Healthcare Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) were flat each at RM6.40 and RM8.96 respectively, while CIMB Group Holdings Bhd eased three sen to RM5.04.
Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd slid four sen to RM1.07, Bumi Armada Bhd was down one sen at 39 sen and Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) fell 1.5 sen to 96.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 70.29 points weaker at 11,010.04, the FBM Emas Shariah Index narrowed 117.90 points to 11,592.61, FBM 70 slipped 76.97 points to 12,893.08, the FBMT 100 Index declined 67.23 points to 10,727.56 and FBM ACE erased 41.16 points to 5,179.93.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 3.18 points to 198.74, the Financial Services Index rose 12.94 points to 16,270.15 and the Plantation Index gave up 136.03 points to 8,098.63.-BERNAMA