Bursa Malaysia slips from three-week high on profit-taking
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated from yesterday's three-week high and opened lower today as profit-taking set in to trim recent gains.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened 0.58 of-a-point weaker at 1,769.49 and retreated a further 1.69 points to 1,768.38 at 9.05am.
The index closed at 1,770.07 on Thursday.
However, market breadth was positive with losers outpacing gainers 84 to 80 with 142 counters remaining unchanged while 1,552 were untraded and 85 others, suspended.
Turnover stood at 42.58 million shares worth RM23.39 million.
AllianceDBS Research said, in a note, that market participants turned cautious in their buying game when the index was hovering around 1,771-points as the level was viewed as a hurdle.
"It is believed that market participants would still be unwilling to play a more aggressive buying game at this juncture in the absence of positive market leads. "As such, the FBM KLCI would likely to trade above the 1,772.03 points level today," it said.
Meanwhile, Public Investment Bank Bhd said many investors remained on the sidelines after the overnight US dollar clawed back early losses against the euro as the markets continued to digest Wednesday's policy statement from the US Federal Reserve.
Of heavyweights, Tenaga fell 12 sen to RM14.12, CIMB lost 10 sen to RM6.58, Maybank amd Some Darby remained flat at RM9.64 and RM9.54, respectively, while Public Bank added sen to RM20.56.
Among active counters, MPay and Frontken eased half-a-sen each to 28 sen and 38 sen, respectively, MLab and UMWOG remained unchanged at 17 sen and 31 sen, respectively, while Ancom was 1.5 sen higher at 8.2 sen.
Of losers, NHFatt fell 33 sen to RM4.01, Tasek declined 18 sen to RM12.82, Panasonic Manufacturing erased 10 sen to RM37.00, TAHPS shed eight sen to RM7.32 and Fibon was seven sen lower at 65.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 5.23 points to 12,599.93, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 4.74 points to 12,242.91, the FBM Emas Syariah Index gave up 10.76 points to 12,734.64 and the FBM Ace was 5.11 points lower at 6,666.47.
However, the FBM 70 jumped 20.39 points to 14,990.96.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index added 3.15 points to 7,838.55, the Finance Index advanced 9.93 points to 16,840.72 and the Industrial Index gathered 0.81 of-a-point to 3,284.68.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.82 per gramme, down 28 sen from RM168.10 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama