KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 ― Bursa Malaysia was lower in early trade today, with its key index retreating from its mild gains yesterday amidst selling among the heavyweights, led by Top Glove.

At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.49 points to 1,570.53 from yesterday’s close of 1,574.02.

The index opened 2.26 points easier at 1,571.76.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 241 to 186, while 333 counters were unchanged, 1,445 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 599.97 million units worth RM298.18 million.

Top Glove dragged the composite index down by a substantial 3.635 points after falling six sen or 1.29 per cent to RM4.41 with 2.44 million shares traded.

A dealer said the decline in new daily Covid-19 cases in the country ― where the daily tally remained below 5,000 for two consecutive days ― curbed interest for rubber glove stocks.

In his Twitter post yesterday, Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 4,743 cases were recorded on Tuesday, an increase of 232 cases from the previous day.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said with the continuous rebound in the United States’ stock markets and the improvement in vaccination rates in Malaysia, buying interest might spillover to stocks on the local front.

“Investors may see some follow-through buying interest in the telecommunication and media counters following the Celcom-Digi merger announcement.

“Besides, the gradual increase in daily vaccine doses administered may shine a light on the recovery theme sectors such as consumer and transportation and logistics,” it said in a note today.

Of the heavyweights, PetChem gained two sen to RM8.00, while Maybank, Public Bank, Tenaga and IHH were all flat at RM8.20, RM4.20, RM10.04 and RM5.75, respectively.

Among the actives, Serba Dinamik slipped 1.5 sen to 61 sen, Saudee bagged two sen to 17 sen, Sasbadi added 1.5 sen to 27 sen, while Tanco, Sanichi and MMAG were flat at 15 sen, eight sen and 16 sen, respectively.

ACE Market debutant Pekat Group Bhd made a strong start with a premium of 53 sen to 85 sen from its initial public offering price of 32 sen, with 30.58 million shares traded.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 16.03 points lower at 11,458.59, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 17.0 points to 11,151.0, the FBM ACE eased 3.24 points to 7,619.25, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 28.71 points to 12,567.96.

Meanwhile, the FBM 70 rose 7.92 points to 14,873.72.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 1.45 points to 15,289.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.12 of-a-point to 189.57, and the Plantation Index inched up 0.15 of-a-point to 6,538.33. ― Bernama