Bursa slips at open on lack of catalysts, Middle East fears
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower in the absence of new catalyst, coupled with the closure of Wall Street on June 19, an analyst said.
At 9.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 0.79 of-a-point to 1,500.65 from Thursday's close of 1,501.44.
The benchmark index opened 0.50 of-a-point lower at 1,500.94.
The broader market was negative, with 118 decliners outnumbering 68 gainers, 192 counters unchanged, while 2,046 were untraded and 25 suspended.
Turnover stood at 56.66 million shares worth RM24.34 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street was closed for a holiday yesterday as traders were pondering over the involvement of the United States (US) in the Middle East conflict. The US 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.39 per cent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (HSI) declined sharply on inflationary concerns induced by prevailing higher tariffs coupled with the conflict in the Middle East. This also disrupts global crude oil supply and could be inflationary as well.
Back home, the FBM KLCI on Thursday closed just above the 1,500 level, likely due to continued foreign selling.
'Nonetheless, we would advocate investors to accumulate blue chips if and when the index dips below the 1,500 mark at around the 1,480 threshold,' Thong told Bernama.
Among heavyweights, Maybank gained 2.0 sen to RM9.62, Tenaga Nasional fell 4.0 sen to RM14.18, CIMB was 1.0 sen higher at RM6.59, while Public Bank, IHH Healthsare and CelcomDigi remained unchanged at RM4.19, RM6.85 and RM3.82 respectively.
Among the most active stocks, Velesto Energy was flat at 18.5 sen, Magma eased half-a-sen to 46 sen, Pavilion REIT was down 6.0 sen to RM1.48, Aizo dipped half-a-sen to 8.0 sen and Dataprep added half-a-sen to 12 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 7.90 points to 11,215.84, the FBMT 100 Index shed 7.68 points to 10,996.32, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 15.09 points to 11,217.80.
The FBM 70 Index lost 18.82 points to 16,074.63 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 24.59 points to 4,390.46.
By sector, the Plantation Index narrowed 4.34 points to 7,214.27, while the Energy Index declined by 0.71 of-a-point to 738.94.
The Financial Services Index rose 19.36 points to 17,349.51, but the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.20 of-a-point to 148.04. — Bernama
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