KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower today due to profit-taking following its positive performance yesterday, while tracking Wall Street’s lacklustre performance overnight at the same time.

A dealer said investors remain cautious ahead of the United States Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate decision later today.

At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 7.02 points to 1,454.08 from Tuesday’s close of 1,461.10.

The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,459.45.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 184 to 79, while 191 counters were unchanged, 1,936 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 113.54 million units worth RM47.52 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI staged a rebound yesterday from last week’s selldown as investors snapped up selected banking heavyweights.

"Nevertheless, the widespread rout on Wall Street overnight over the aggressive rate hikes concerns will spill over to the regional markets and the local bourse.

"Meanwhile, foreign funds remained on a selling mode with the five-day net foreign selling at RM261.4 million,” it said.

On commodities, the brokerage firm noted that crude oil price had dropped to around the US$90 per barrel mark, while crude palm oil (CPO) was traded above RM3,750.

As for sectors in focus, it said the technology sector may be tracking the losses in Nasdaq overnight and trade on a cautious tone ahead of the Fed meeting, while the market may favour the banking sector amidst the interest rate upcycle environment.

"We also like the construction and building materials sector ahead of the Budget 2023 and election talks. Besides, plastic manufacturers could do well under the weaker ringgit environment,” it added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB Bank eased three sen each to RM8.67 and RM5.45, respectively, Petronas Chemicals and IHH Healthcare slipped six sen each to RM8.64 and RM6.08, respectively while Public Bank added one sen to RM4.46.

Of the actives, Top Glove, SNS Networks and Citaglobal trimmed half-a-sen each to 70 sen, 26.5 sen and 23 sen, respectively, while China Automobile and NWP Holdings were flat at half-a-sen and 24 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 40.90 points to 10,383.0, the FBMT 100 Index lost 41.99 points to 10,124.76, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 51.62 points to 10,469.81, the FBM 70 shed 24.94 points to 12,624.21 and the FBM ACE gave up 36.73 points to 4,770.57.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index was 2.16 points easier at 718.03, the Plantation Index contracted 51.10 points to 6,856.44, the Financial Services Index fell 31.24 points to 16,422.45 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.97 of-a-point to 178.02. — Bernama