KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 – Shares on Bursa Malaysia opened mixed in early trade Thursday on mild buying interest, but weak market sentiment limited gains. At 9.06 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index stood at 1,836.97, down 2.17 points, after opening three points lower at 1,836.14. Gainers outpaced losers 116 to 93, while 152 counters were unchanged, 1,261 untraded and 34 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 91.39 million shares worth RM36.85 million. HwangDBS Vickers Research said market sentiment was clouded by renewed fears that the geopolitical tension in Ukraine might flare up again and the overnight losses on Wall Street would influence the local market today. Major US equity bellwethers plunged between 0.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent last night. “This will likely put Malaysian equities under pressure today.
“After chalking up cumulative gains of 21.7 points or 1.2 per cent in five successive days, the key FBM KLCI could back off from the immediate resistance barrier of 1,840,” the research house said in a note. On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index added 3.32 points to 3,192.66, but the Finance Index gave up 60.26 points to 16,515.58 and the Plantation Index eased 8.02 points to 8,912.04.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 7.53 points to 12,710.68, the FBMT100 Index declined 9.89 points to 12,366.36, but the FBM Ace perked 7.49 points to 6,741.73 and the FBM 70 added 7.13 points to 13,852.27. Among actives, Symphony rose 8.5 sen to 22 sen, Ingenuity was flat at 10 sen while Xidelang shed half-a-sen to 27 sen. As for heavyweights, TNB gained two sen to RM11.98, Axiata added one sen to RM6.61 while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.25. However, Maybank slipped two sen to RM9.64 and CIMB lost three sen to RM7.09.
— BERNAMA
