KUALA LUMPUR – The ringgit opened marginally higher against the US dollar today with China’s reopening theme still resonating in Malaysia’s capital markets and triggering some catch-up in other Asian foreign exchanges, analysts said.
At 9am, the local note improved to 4.5915/5965 against the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.5925/5980.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said, however, that overnight in New York, traders seemed to pump the brakes a little on the dollar sell-off after last week’s United States consumer price Index madness.
Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia extended earlier losses into mid-morning as cautious market sentiment weighed on investors’ risk appetite, with selling spotted in selected heavyweights led by telecommunications and utilities counters.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 7.26 points to 1,456.74 from yesterday’s close of 1,464.00.
The market bellwether opened 2.49 points easier at 1,461.51.
On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 407 to 261, while 331 counters were unchanged, 1,326 untraded, and 13 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.23 billion units valued at RM510.88 million.
Among Bursa Malaysia heavyweight stocks, Maybank, Public Bank, and Petronas Chemicals shrank two sen each to RM8.57, RM4.36 and RM8.70, respectively, while CIMB went down by 3 sen to RM5.46 and IHH Healthcare shed 4 sen to RM5.95.
Among the actives, Advance Synergy slid 1 sen to 13 sen, XOX eased half-a-sen to 2 sen, Top Glove reduced 2 sen to RM1.00 and Supermax Corporation gave up 1.5 sen to 96 sen, while Borneo Oil was flat at 2 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 50.36 points to 10,470.02, the FBM Emas Index shaved 44.04 points to 10,351.13, the FBMT 100 Index fell 47.63 points to 10,080.36, the FBM 70 narrowed 47.74 points to 12,317.73, and the FBM ACE dumped 22.90 points to 4,987.13.
Sector-wise, the financial services index pulled down 47.46 points to 16,241.46, the industrial products and services index inched down 0.10 of-a-point to 179.13, and the energy index lessened by 3.84 points to 727.91, but the plantation index advanced 6.48 points to 6,908.84. – Bernama, November 15, 2022
