Bursa M'sia opens lower in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning after having closed at an intra-day high yesterday and as market sentiment remained cautious ahead of China's Gross Domestic Product report to be released today.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.52 points lower at 1,873.24 from Monday's close of 1,878.76.
The index opened 4.65 points weaker at 1,874.11.
Market breadth was positive with 157 gainers as compared to 73 losers, while 164 counters were unchanged, 1,511 untraded and 27 others suspended.
Volume stood at 111.96 million units valued at RM48.15 million.
Bursa Malaysia had announced yesterday that Intraday Short Selling has been implemented for all investors as part of the exchange's strategy to boost market liquidity.
Among heavyweights, KLCC and IHH were both flat at RM7.25 and RM6.10 respectively, PPB added 24 sen to RM18.84, Digi.Com advanced four sen to RM4.58, while MISC down seven sen to RM6.97.
Among the losers, SimePLT reduced 13 sen to RM5.51, Malpac eased 11.5 sen to 98.5 sen, SPSetia was down 11 sen to RM3.09 and TNB lost eight sen to RM15.86.
For actives, UMWOG and SKH were both flat at 31.5 sen and nine sen, SapNRG lost half-a-sen to 76 sen, while INIX gained 1.5 sen to nine sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 28.42 points lower at 13,154.46, the FBMT 100 Index slid 32.08 points to 12,946.27, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 36.34 points to 13,362.81 and the FBM 70 declined 18.42 points to 15,821.34.
But, the FBM Ace rose 38.19 points to 5,612.10.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index gave up 25.19 points for 18,291.92, the Industrial Index trimmed 4.06 points to 3,224.37 and the Plantation Index dropped 34.62 points to 8,027.96.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded at opening today.
Spot month April 2018, stood at RM168.05 a gramme, while May 2018, June 2018 and July 2018 remained at RM168.35 a gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 66 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was up 48 sen to RM163.10 a gramme from RM162.62 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama