KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Bursa Malaysia continued its downtrend to open lower today, as investors remain cautious over volatile markets, taking the cue from the significant sell-off on Wall Street overnight, a dealer said.

At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.41 points to 1,455.42 from yesterday’s close of 1,464.83.

The benchmark index opened 6.97 points lower at 1,457.86.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 529 to 63, while 216 counters were unchanged, 1,455 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 355.69 million units worth RM239.99 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the sell-down on Wall Street intensified on fears of a more aggressive rate hike by the Federal Reserve ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week.

On the home front, he said the FBM KLCI dipped to its 52-week low yesterday following a decline of almost 110 points since end-May this year.

“In view of the drastic sell-down on Wall Street, we reckon trading on the local bourse to remain cautious today.

“Therefore, we expect the index to possibly test the 1,450 level before bargain-hunting activities emerge and we believe the index to trend within the 1,450-1,470 range today,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased five sen to RM8.68, Public Bank lost three sen to RM4.48, Petronas Chemicals inched down 10 sen to RM9.56, while IHH Healthcare stayed flat at RM6.22.

Of the actives, Unitrade eased six sen to 26 sen, Dagang NeXchange gave up two sen to 88.5 sen, Yew Lee decreased half-a-sen to 29 sen, while Serba Dinamik and Ta Win stayed flat at 10 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 83.48 points lower at 10,393.72, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 82.58 points to 10,598.07, the FBM 70 declined 136.75 points to 12,542.87, the FBM ACE trimmed 79.64 points to 4,837.02, and the FBMT 100 Index decreased 75.90 points to 10,116.49.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 120.96 points to 16,058.95, the Plantation Index shed 60.43 points to 7,322.48, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.90 points easier at 186.92. — Bernama