Bursa Malaysia Opens Marginally Lower

By Anas Abu Hassan and Danni Haizal

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower on Tuesday as cautious sentiment persisted despite Wall Street’s upbeat overnight performance, while investors reassessed ongoing global geopolitical risks, an analyst said.

At 9.08 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.01 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,513.60 from Monday’s close of 1,516.61.

The benchmark index opened 2.36 points lower at 1,514.25.

However, the broader market was positive, with 275 gainers leading 100 decliners, 200 counters were unchanged, while 1,863 were untraded and 41 suspended.

Turnover stood at 191.36 million shares worth RM128.17 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s equity research vice-president, Thong Pak Leng, said Wall Street closed broadly higher as traders observed that Iran’s retaliation overnight towards the US had been restrained.

In addition, United States President Donald Trump also just announced an Israel-Iran ceasefire timeline that will potentially end the war following what he described as a ‘weak’ retaliation from Iran.

Back home, Thong said the FBM KLCI surprisingly staged a strong rebound after a weak opening yesterday, predominantly due to buying support by local institutions.

“For today, we expect the index to trend between the 1,510-1,530 range,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained one sen to RM9.68, and Public Bank fell 13 sen to RM4.29. CIMB eased one sen to RM6.79, IHH Healthcare dropped two sen to RM6.83, while Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM14.30.

Among the most active stocks, Main Market-debutant Cuckoo was flat at RM1.08, and NexG rose half-a-sen to 35.5 sen. Velesto Energy slipped half-a-sen to 18 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum declined 16 sen to RM1.67, and Bumi Armada gave up 1.5 sen to 46.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 4.92 points to 11,284.26, and the FBMT 100 Index shrank 8.52 points to 11,075.38.

Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 33.44 points to 11,245.35, the FBM 70 Index was up 47.01 points to 16,119.10, and the FBM ACE Index garnered 25.42 points to 4,403.27.

By sector, the Financial Services Index slid 97.38 points to 17,575.41, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.63 of a point to 148.01, the Plantation Index narrowed 2.40 points to 7,228.15, and the Energy Index declined 20.39 points to 725.56.

-- BERNAMA