Bursa Malaysia declines at opening as investors book profits

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 ― Bursa Malaysia retreated today as investors opted to book profits after yesterday's rally and amid bearish Wall Street performance overnight due to high valuation worries.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 4.79 points to 1,550.80 compared with yesterday's close of 1,555.59.

The benchmark index opened 1.49 points lower at 1,554.10.

The market breadth was negative with losers surpassing gainers 201 to 118, while 261 counters were unchanged, 1,717 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 245.68 million units worth RM93.79 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said in addition to the widely expected delay in a rate cut, traders are wary that US equities have legs to trend higher.

“As such, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 64 points while the Nasdaq declined by 145 points as the US 10-year yield eased marginally to 4.275 per cent,” he said.

At home, he said, profit-taking activities are expected after the FBM KLCI maintained its impressive performance, closing above the 1,550 mark yesterday.

“This resembles a mini Chinese New Year rally as the index has added more than 40 points during the period. It is also heartening to see that retail presence is improving though actual participation is still low,” he said.

For today, he said the index is expected to hover within the 1,550-1,560 range and may march towards the 1,600 level soon.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, which anticipated a better performance from the corporates in the fourth quarter (4Q) of 2023, said traders would be looking for trading opportunities within the fundamentally solid companies such as those from the consumer sector, especially the poultry counters, and oil and gas companies.

It also continued to like the technology sector on the back of the National Integrated Immigration System 2.0 project, as well as the plantation sector on the back of firmer prices.

In the commodity market, Brent oil price fell more than 1.0 per cent on the back of worries about global demand, offsetting price support from the Middle East tensions.

On the local bourse, index-linked heavyweight CelcomDigi was the main laggard, losing five sen to RM4.32, followed by Petronas Chemicals which eased seven sen to RM7.02, while Maybank was three sen lower at RM9.48.

In contrast, Sime Darby Plantation bagged three sen to RM4.53 and Public Bank edged up one sen to RM4.49.

As for the actives, Hong Seng and MMAG increased half-a-sen to 2.5 sen and 11.5 sen, respectively.

SC Estate Builder and KNM were flat at 1.0 sen and 9.5 sen, respectively, while Lay Hong increased three sen to 36 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 33.80 points to 11,515.41, the FBMT 100 Index shed 34.52 points to 11,164.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 43.85 points to 11,582.08, the FBM 70 Index fell 48.22 points to 15,497.65, and the FBM ACE Index decreased 33.05 points to 4,847.55.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 19.30 points to 17,334.91, the Plantation Index gave up 1.34 points to 7,342.02, the Energy Index was 5.42 points lower at 941.53, and the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 0.52 of-a-point to 177.28. ― Bernama