Malaysian Stock Market Broadly Lower In Early Trade

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) opened broadly lower on Wednesday morning, reversing Tuesday’s uptrend on the back of subdued risk appetite and despite the improving oil prices, dealers said. At 9.04 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.31 points lower at 1,820.59 from Tuesday’s close of 1,826.9. The index opened 5.04 points easier at 1,821.86. There were 140 losers against 118 gainers, with 158 counters unchanged, 1,493 untraded and 68 others suspended. Volume stood at 162.22 million units valued at RM71.45 million. A dealer said Bursa retreated from recent gains as profit taking emerged, with some investors withdrawing their positions ahead of the long-weekend. The local bourse will be closed on Friday for the Independence Day holiday. Another dealer said despite the upbeat close of Wall Street last night, sentiment in the local market was also weighed on by unfavourable US equities. Meanwhile, Canada is likely to agree to the North American Free Trade Agreement deal with the US, with the updated version deal likely to be signed off this week. Among heavyweights, Public Bank lost six sen to RM29.94, Petronas Chemicals slipped one sen to RM9.55 and CIMB shed two sen to RM6.06. Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.74, while Maybank was flat at RM10.00. Among actives, Vivocom and Sapura Energy inched down half-a-sen each to one sen and 34.5 sen, but MY E.G added three sen to RM1.40. The FBM Emas Index fell 38.39 points to 12,775.95, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 41.33 points to 12,568.83, the FBM 70 gave up 41.79 points for 15,313, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 49.05 points to 12,909.36, while the FBM Ace Index decreased 14.69 points to 5,368.02. Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 26.53 points to 17,864.19, the Industrial Index declined 15.77 points to 3,233 and the Plantation Index slid 20.94 points to 7,585.36. -- BERNAMA