KUALA LUMPUR (June 14): Bursa Malaysia continued its downtrend to open lower on Tuesday (June 14) as investors remained cautious over volatile markets, taking their cue from the significant sell-off on Wall Street overnight, a dealer said.
At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI had fallen 9.41 points to 1,455.42 from Monday’s close at 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 selldown on Wall Street intensified on fears of a more aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week.
On the home front, he said the KLCI dipped to its 52-week low on Monday following a decline of almost 110 points since end-May this year.
“In view of the drastic selldown on Wall Street, we reckon trading on the local bourse to remain cautious today (Tuesday).
“Therefore, we expect the index to possibly test the 1,450 level before bargain-hunting activities emerge and we believe the index will trend within the 1,450-1,470 range today (Tuesday),” he told Bernama.
Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) eased five sen to RM8.68, Public Bank Bhd lost three sen to RM4.48 and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd inched down 10 sen to RM9.56, while IHH Healthcare Bhd stayed flat at RM6.22.
Of the actives, Unitrade Industries Bhd eased six sen to 26 sen, Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) gave up two sen to 88.5 sen and Yew Lee Pacific Group Bhd decreased half a sen to 29 sen, while Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd and Ta Win Holdings Bhd 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