KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 ― Bursa Malaysia opened lower today amid a soft lead from the overnight Wall Street.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) decreased 3.77 points to 1,603.80 compared with yesterday's close of 1,607.57.
The market bellwether opened 2.70 points higher at 1,604.87.
The overall market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 248 to 173, while 319 counters were unchanged, 1,426 untraded and seven others suspended.
Total volume stood at 366.08 million shares worth RM201.39 million.
Malacca Securities said although market sentiment may remain tepid, tracking the losses on Wall Street, the local bourse may be supported by buying interest in high earning certainty stocks ahead of the earnings season.
The US stock markets extended their losses yesterday as the Dow fell 0.8 per cent amid rising Covid-19 cases, overshadowing the recent strong batch of corporate earnings.
In Asia, stocks closed mostly lower yesterday, while oil prices pulled back from one-month highs on Monday due to concerns over possible imposition of restrictions in India to contain surging Covid-19 infections and deaths.
At home, it said traders may pile into plantation counters as crude palm oil price rebounded above RM3,800 per tonne.
“Besides, we expect to see buying interest spilling over to other glove counters following Kossan’s record high earnings released yesterday amid rising daily Covid-19 confirmed cases.
“Building materials-related stocks are also in focus amid the elevated raw material prices,” it said in a note.
Most of the heavyweights were in the red with Press Metal remained in negative zone, losing 13 sen to RM5.13, while Axiata and Maxis dropped five sen to RM3.95 and RM4.73, respectively.
MISC was nine sen lower at RM6.71 and Digi eased four sen to RM4.21.
In contrast, Top Glove recovered four sen to RM5.44 and Supermax improved 10 sen to RM5.50.
Among the active counters, Ucrest went up half-a-sen to 60 sen, Key Asic was flat at 20.5 sen, Dataprep surged 33 sen to RM2.33, and Bina puri was unchanged at RM9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index reduced 14.45 points to 11,810.68, the FBMT 100 lost 19.09 points to 11,467.46, while the FBM 70 gained 4.14 points to 15,607.06.
The FBM Emas Shariah edged down 23.21 points to 13,208.87 and the FBM ACE was 10.70 points lower at 8,581.96.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lessened 1.34 points to 6,878.69, the Financial Services Index softened 7.28 points to 15,085.87, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.02 points weaker at 194.06. ― Bernama
