KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower on the last trading day of the week, due to some selling pressure after its decent performance over the last few days.
At 9.02am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 9.56 points, or 0.698 per cent to 1,360.20 from 1,369.76 at Thursday’s close.
The key index opened 8.14 points weaker at 1,361.62.
Market breadth, however, turned upbeat with gainers thumped losers 153 to 82, while 193 counters were unchanged, 1,491 untraded and 33 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 157.82 million worth RM42.58 million.
Rakuten Trade in its note today said the US' Wall Street continued with its volatility but ended in a high note following after the Federal Reserve rolled out a US$2.3 trillion (RM10 trillion) financing package to resuscitate the ailing US economy floored by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The DJI Average breached the 24,000 mark at one point before profit-taking activities pushed the index to close lower at 23,700, illustrating the fragile sentiments amongst investors.
Hence, the research house anticipates the trend would influence the regional front, especially ahead of the weekend.
In addition to that, the crude oil price weakened further despite the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies agreed to cut output by 10 million barrels per day from May.
The benchmark Brent crude was traded at US$31.48 per barrel, down by 4.14 per cent
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM7.46, Dialog down two sen to RM3.10 while Genting Malaysia up one sen to RM2.11 and Genting was two sen better at RM3.81.
The decision to slash output by members of the Saudi-led oil cartel and Russia did not helped paint a rosy picture on the energy counters.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy and Bumi Armada were flat at 11 sen and 18.5 sen respectively, while Hibiscus Petroleum was two sen lower at 51 sen.
Top gainers were led by United Plantation, which gained 14 sen to RM25.08, BAT gained 10 sen to RM10.80 and PetGas was eight sen better at RM15.46.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 44.46 points to 9,425.45, the FBM Emas Shariah Index inched down 0.25 of-a-point to 10,403.83 while the FBMT 100 Index went down 48.17 points to 9,312.63.
The FBM 70 added 14.52 points to 11,065.95 and the FBM Ace surged 13.87 points to 4,193.57.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.34 of-a-point to 110.78, the Financial Services Index contracted 208.60 points to 12,266.52 and the Plantation Index was 20.19 points lower at 6,263.66. — Bernama
