KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses to open marginally lower today, in line with Wall Street’s mixed performance and the United States (US) Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data which showed that the sector remained in contraction mode, a dealer said.
At 9.07 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 0.16 of-a-point to 1,418.60 from Monday’s closing of 1,418.76.
The index opened 0.18 of-a-point lower at 1,418.58.
On the broader market, decliners surpassed gainers 174 to 113, while 259 counters were unchanged, 1,749 untraded and 23 suspended.
Turnover stood at 169.70 million units worth RM66.76 million.
The US Manufacturing PMI increased to 49.0 last month, the highest reading since November 2022, yet it marked the 11th consecutive month that the reading remained below 50, which indicates a contraction in the sector.
Back home, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng reckoned a swift rebound in the local bourse is necessary to evade a prolonged consolidation phase.
“Hence, we anticipate bargain hunting to emerge, especially for the utilities sector as yesterday’s selling may have been a tad overdone,” he told Bernama.
For today, he expects the FBM KLCI index to hover between 1,420 and 1,430.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank, CIMB and Petronas Chemicals improved one sen to RM8.76, RM5.41 and RM7.08, respectively, and Public Bank added two sen to RM4.08, while Tenaga Nasional eased two sen to RM9.88.
Of the actives, Ekovest, Tanco, Meta Bright and KNM were unchanged at 51.5 sen, 55 sen, 24 sen and 14 sen, respectively, while Hextar Industries added half-a-sen to 40 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 5.83 points to 10,533.07, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 6.09 points to 10,198.26 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 6.31 points to 10,816.83.
The FBM ACE Index shed 4.13 points to 5,141.98 and the FBM 70 Index narrowed by 29.66 points to 14,102.59.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 0.17 of-a-point to 170.26, the Energy Index went down 11.67 points to 876.91, while the Financial Services Index rose 0.56 of-a-point to 15,876.67 and the Plantation Index gained 9.51 points to 6,862.65
Meanwhile, the ringgit continued to trade on the back foot today, opening lower against the US dollar following better-than-expected United States' (US) ISM Manufacturing Index data.
This prompted traders to increase their bets on a November rate hike by the US Federal Reserves, lending support to the greenback, analysts said.
At 9.01 am, the local note slipped to 4.7220/7270 against the greenback from yesterday's close of 4.7150/7195. – Bernama, October 3, 2023
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