KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower amid quiet Asian equity markets due to public holidays in China, Hong Kong and South Korea, signalling subdued beginning to the year's final quarter after posting a slight gains in the previous trading session.
The markets were closed for trading in China for the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day celebration, Hong Kong for the National Day and South Korea for the Thanksgiving Day.
The local bourse managed to hold on to its gains (+0.1%) yesterday after enduring some volatility in the 11th trading hour, largely supported by banking heavyweights.
The lower liners, however, closed mixed, while the broader market ended mostly lower with the energy sector (-1.6%) underperforming after crude oil prices took a dive in the previous session.
At opening today, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,500.00, down 4.82 points from Wednesday close of 1,504.82.
The index opened 3.24 points lower at 1,501.587.
On the broader market, however, gainers powered slightly above losers 191 to 184, while 229 counters were unchanged, 1,485 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 330.57 million units worth RM114.79 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd reckoned that for today, any gains would be tempered by an opportunity to sell into strength, particularly from foreign funds (year-to-date net outflow at RM22.3 billion).
“Elsewhere, the lower liners will continue to endure a rough ride over the fading trading interest amid the end of the blanket loan moratorium that saw trading value slumping to the lowest level since June 2020,” the brokerage said.
As for sector focus for today, it favoured the technology sector on the back of their favourable outlook.
Trading interests are also starting to pick up within the construction sector ahead of the tabling of Budget 2021 which may provide further clarity on the status of mega-infrastructure projects.
An analyst said today's market would also be influenced by positive sentiment boosted by the stronger-than-expected US jobs creation data in September 2020.
The US stock markets rebounded overnight as the Dow advanced 1.2%.
“But we are looking at a volatile October ahead of the US presidential election in November,” she said
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM7.16, Top Glove down four sen to RM8.26, Public Bank was flat at RM15.70 and Tenaga was four sen higher at RM10.54.
Of the actives, XOX inched down one sen to 12 sen, Dolphin International warrants up two sen to 2.5 sen and Iris Corp was 1.5 sen higher at 29.5 sen.
Top gainers include F&N, which jumped 50 sen to RM32.60, UP gained 24 sen to RM14.88 and Time Dotcom went up 20 sen to RM12.20.
As for the losing counters, Nestle topped the list, erasing RM1.40 to RM140.00 and Ajinomoto gaving up 42 sen to RM15.28.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 28.60 points to 10,8802.96 and the FBMT 100 Index slipped 25.60 points to 10,635.10.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 38.21 points to 12,862.73, the FBM 70 inched down 0.61 point to 14,128.21 but the FBM ACE was 5.66 points better at 9,919.67.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 41.55 points to 12,436.07, the Plantation Index dropped 24.39 points to 7,025.84 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.12 of-a-point to 136.97. – Bernama, October 1, 2020
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