KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia remained in the red at mid-morning, with the key index shedding 0.72% on persistent selling activities in most heavyweights counters.
At 11.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) trimmed 10.96 points to 1,544.37 from Friday’s close of 1,555.33.
On the scoreboard, losers thumped gainers 442 to 260, while 378 counters were unchanged, 1,172 untraded, and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.04 billion units worth RM673.26 million.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.21, IHH Healthcare and TNB were flat at RM6.58 and RM9.04, respectively, while Maybank slid seven sen to RM8.39. Petronas Chemicals lost nine sen to RM9, and CIMB shed two sen to RM5.52.
As for the actives, Kanger International added half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, Iconic Worldwide rose 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen, Avillion was flat at 10.5 sen, while SMTrack declined 2.0 sen to 27 sen and AirAsia was 2.5 sen weaker at 59.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index down 60.91 points to 11,117.61, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 74.15 points to 11,806.66, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 63.71 points to 10,821.94, the FBM 70 eased 24.38 points to 13,828.19, and the FBM ACE fell 12.28 points to 6,267.35.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index decreased 96.67 points to 6,664.88, the Industrial Products and Services Index reduced 1.24 points to 201.72, and the Financial Services Index weakened 69.01 points to 16,083.07.
Meanwhile, the ringgit opened lower against the United States dollar today ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting on January 20, an analyst said.
At 9.02am, the local currency was trading at 4.1850/1880 against the US dollar compared with 4.1765/1795 at Friday’s close.
Bank Islam Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said as there are a lot of talks of an earlier rate hike in the US, the attention would be on the latest BNM’s MPC assessment on prevailing economic conditions, particularly the rising inflation rate and what it means in terms of overnight policy rate (OPR).
Meanwhile, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd said a potential slowdown in China’s fourth quarter of 2021 gross domestic product may help the US dollar regain some of its losses and put pressure on the local note.
“However, rising Brent crude oil price and weak US retail sales data are expected to hold the US dollar index below the 96.0 mark,” it said in a note.
In addition, on the domestic front, the research house said if the BNM delivers an upbeat economic assessment, the ringgit may strengthen and trade around the 4.17 level.
At the opening bell, the local note was traded higher against a basket of other major currencies.
The ringgit rose versus the Singapore dollar to 3.1032/1057 from Friday’s close of 3.1045/1070 and appreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.6598/6628 from 3.6675/6704.
It strengthened against the British pound to 5.7201/7242 from 5.7339/7380 and increased vis-à-vis the euro to 4.7734/7768 from 4.7846/7880. – Bernama, January 17, 2022
