KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 ― Bursa Malaysia opened lower today, tracking the weakness on Wall Street performance overnight.

At 9.05am, the benchmark index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.98 points to 1,588.34 from yesterday’s close of 1,591.32.

The index opened 0.23 of-a-point easier at 1,591.22.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 255 to 127, while 281 counters were unchanged, 1,541 untraded and seven others suspended.

Total volume stood at 318.66 million worth RM137.55 million.

Among heavyweights, Top Glove gained one sen to RM5.35, Press Metal and Hartalega gained three sen each to RM5.33 and RM9.58, respectively, while Public Bank, Petronas Chemicals and CIMB were flat at RM4.19, RM8.12 and RM4.29, respectively.

Maybank and TNB declined three sen each to RM8.36 and RM9.96, respectively, IHH Healthcare eased five sen to RM5.30, Maxis gave up four sen to RM4.66, and Axiata went down two sen to RM3.70. 

Of the actives, Tuju Setia jumped 11.5 sen to 81.5 sen, OCR added one sen to 23.5 sen, Censof rose six sen to 41.5 sen, Focus Dynamics, Nexgram and Tanco were flat at six sen, 3.5 sen and 15.5 sen, respectively, while Dagang Nexchange declined 2.5 sen to 74.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 22.50 points to 11,582.65 and the FBMT 100 Index discounted 20.66 points to 11,259.7.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 25.97 points to 12,903.4, the FBM ACE decreased 30.61 points to 7,786.99, and the FBM 70 dropped 25.44 points to 14,949.7.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index fell 9.69 points to 6,950.97, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.04 of-a-point to 196.06, and the Financial Services Index shed 19.63 points to 14,992.10. ― Bernama