KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher in early trade but turned lower thereafter, tracking weaker performance on Wall Street overnight, a dealer said.
At 9.10am, the key index declined by 2.85 points to 1,422.94 from Friday’s close of 1,425.79. It opened 0.40 of-a-point higher at 1,426.19.
The market was closed yesterday for the replacement holiday of Hari Raya Aidiladha.
On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 226 to 105, while 193 counters were unchanged, 1,716 untraded and eight others suspended.
Turnover stood at 251.31 million units worth RM70.40 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street traders were on cautious mode as they await the earnings season which is expected to kick off later this week.
On the home front, he said the FBM KLCI is expected to remain in consolidation mode after the index edged higher last Friday due to some bargain-hunting activities.
“Therefore, we anticipate the benchmark index to hover within the 1,415-1,430 range today,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained one sen to RM8.63, IHH Healthcare added four sen to RM6.40, Tenaga Nasional gained one sen to RM7.93, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals eased two sen to RM4.38 and RM8.45 respectively, and CIMB was down three sen to RM5.11.
As for the actives, TWL lost 1.5 sen to five sen, Metronic rose 5.5 sen to 15 sen, Top Glove added one sen to RM1.00, Aturmaju Resources inched down half-a-sen to 10.5 sen and Dagang NeXchange fell one sen to 75.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 23.65 points to 10,112.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index reduced 28.27 points to 10,165.65, the FBM 70 was 37.13 points lower at 12,159.18, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 22.20 points to 9,870.88, and the FBM ACE dropped 48.72 points to 4,619.09.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 21.39 points to 16,055.73, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.03 points lower at 171.80, the Energy Index gave up 8.04 points to 628.40 and the Plantation Index weakened 1.90 points to 6,632.96.
Meanwhile, the ringgit retreated from last week’s gain to open marginally lower against the US dollar today on lack of buying interest.
At 9.30am, the local currency decreased versus the greenback to 4.4335/4345 from Friday’s close of 4.4250/4270.
The market was closed yesterday for the replacement holiday of Hari Raya Aidiladha.
As market sentiment is expected to remain fragile amid the weakening global growth outlook due to a faster-than-expected major central banks’ interest rate hikes, Kenanga Research said pro-cyclical currencies including ringgit may continue to trade in a volatile manner and depreciate against the US dollar.
“Hence, the local note is likely to hover around the 4.42-4.44 zone against the greenback as the DXY is expected to remain elevated around the 107.0 level, if the US June CPI turns out to be higher than expected,” it said in a research note today.
Despite Bank Negara Malaysia’s back-to-back 25 basis points overnight policy rate hike and strong domestic retail sales reading, the ringgit last week weakened near the 4.43 level for the first time since March 2020 against the strengthening US dollar.
However, the ringgit was traded firmer against a basket of major currencies.
The local currency strengthened against the British pound to 5.2612/2624 from 5.2888/2912 on Friday and was higher vis-à-vis the Singapore dollar at 3.1495/1506 from 3.1528/1547 previously.
The ringgit also rose against the Japanese yen to 3.2302/2312 from 3.2577/2595 last week and increased versus the euro to 4.4397/4407 from 4.4777/4797. – Bernama, July 12, 2022
