US Tariff Imposition Drags Bursa Malaysia Lower At Opening

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street’s weaker performance following the United States' (US) imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on 14 countries, including Malaysia, beginning Aug 1 this year.

At 9.11 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.72 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 1,526.82 from last Monday’s close of 1,537.54. The benchmark index had earlier opened 7.85 points lower at 1,529.69.

The market breadth was negative, with 383 decliners thumping 66 gainers. A total of 229 counters were unchanged, 1,727 untraded and nine suspended. Turnover stood at 194.24 million shares worth RM152.79 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said Wall Street fell as US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement reignited global trade war fears, with added levies on Japan, South Korea, and several other nations. The brokerage noted that the Dow Jones Index, S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined by 0.9 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

“The markets now turn to the US Federal Reserve minutes for clarity on the interest rate outlook, and we expect the local bourse to trade on a broadly negative tone. However, we believe the market may shift to more defensive and domestically driven stocks,” it said in a note.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank fell two sen to RM9.70, Public Bank was three sen lower at RM4.30, Tenaga Nasional declined 16 sen to RM13.64, CIMB shed six sen to RM6.69 and IHH Healthcare went down one sen to RM6.71.

In active trade, NexG and Tanco slipped half-a-sen each to 41.5 sen and 89 sen, respectively, while Zetrix AI dropped two sen to 93 sen. Kim Hin gained eight sen to 84 sen, and Supermax added five sen to 64 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 85.82 points to 11,432.84, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 85.93 points to 11,207.30, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 102.24 points to 11,398.49.

The FBM 70 Index sank 157.87 points to 16,465.58 while the FBM ACE Index shed 31.06 points to 4,442.56.

By sector, the Financial Services Index was 81.77 points lower at 17,640.19, the Plantation Index narrowed 18.48 points to 7,426.53, and the Energy Index was down 5.57 points to 732.02. The Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.84 points to 153.57.

-- BERNAMA