Bursa Malaysia mixed in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened mixed today with a slightly lower benchmark index on selling activities in selected heavyweights.

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.06 points easier at 1,710.07 from Monday's close of 1,713.13. The index opened 4.65 points easier at 1,708.48.

Market breadth, however, was positive with gainers outpacing losers by 109 to 85 while 169 counters were unchanged, 1,480 untraded and 31 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 77.50 million shares worth RM37.19 million.

JF Apex Research said the FBM KLCI was expected to remain bearish today and trend lower towards the support of 1,700 points following the recent lacklustre performance.

Meanwhile, the US markets ended mixed with the Dow Jones surging to record highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq, however, declined following losses in technology counters while the European stocks rose due to progress in 'Britain Exit' negotiations and US tax reform, it said.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare rose four sen each to RM20.04 and RM5.65, respectively, CIMB added three sen to RM5.98, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.25 and RM7.43 while TNB trimmed 12 sen to RM15.46.

Sime Darby Plantation lost 22 sen to RM4.63, Axiata slid nine sen to RM5.25, Sime Darby Property eased two sen to RM1.10 and Petronas Gas went down four sen to RM15.90.

Of the actives, Green Packet rose 1.5 sen to 44 sen, Versatile Creative was up a sen to 92.5 sen, Trive Property and DGB Asia were flat at 5.5 sen and 14.5 sen, respectively, and Vivocom fell half-a-sen to 12.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 15.13 points to 12,344.69, FBMT 100 Index declined 15.57 points to 12,009.17, FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 42.03 points to 12,797.46 and the FBM Ace slipped 5.42 points to 6,233.46.

The FBM 70, however, increased 2.03 points to 15,342.69.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index advanced 39.71 points to 15,943.1, Industrial Index gained 6.85 points to 3,170.47 and the Plantation Index improved 14.25 points to 7,878.02.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM160.72 per gramme, down 35 sen from RM161.07 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama