Malaysian Stock Market Opens Lower

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Bernama) – The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) opened lower on Monday in tracking the easier close on Wall Street last Friday and the deepening economic crisis in Turkey, dealers said. At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.90 points weaker at 1,801.85 from Friday's close of 1,805.75. The index opened 2.10 points lower at 1,803.65. On the broader market, losers led gainers 192 to 91 with 199 unchanged, 1,413 untraded and 32 others suspended. Volume stood at 73.74 million units valued at RM34.00 million. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.77 per cent lower last Friday at 25,313.14, posing a week-on-week loss of 3.5 per cent. Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd said technically, the FBM KLCI had been on a bullish run since mid-July. “However, we are watchful, because the technical indicators have been in an overbought zone without any corrections over the past two weeks. “From here, we do not discount a possibility of seeing corrections towards 1,750 and 1,720,” it said in a research note today. It added that should a positive turnaround occur, the index may head back upwards to 1,830 and 1,870. Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased two sen to RM9.87, Public Bank added four sen to RM24.44, Tenaga fell four sen to RM15.74, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM9.21 and CIMB gave up one sen to RM5.92. Among actives, MRCB was one sen lower at 86 sen, while Sapura Energy and Foundpac were each flat at 58.5 sen and 41 sen respectively. Of the top losers, Petronas Dagangan eased 40 sen to RM26.40, Maxis depreciated 12 sen to RM5.67 and Carlsberg shed 10 sen to RM19.34. The FBM Emas Index dipped 25.38 points to 12,745.11, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 31.16 points lower at 12,917.72 and the FBM Ace Index slid 34.14 points to 5,515.26. The FBMT 100 Index edged down 25.35 points to 12,521.48 and the FBM 70 fell 24.82 points to 15,563.96. Sector-wise, the Finance Index dropped 18.71 points to 17,557.46, the Plantation Index fell 50.56 points to 7,662.27, but the Industrial Index was up 5.49 points at 3,274.84. -- BERNAMA