Bursa Malaysia Flat In Early Trade After Downbeat Wall St Performance

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16  -- Bursa Malaysia made a flat start on Wednesday, following the downbeat performance on Wall Street overnight.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched down 0.29 of a point, or 0.02 per cent, to 1,525.11 from Tuesday’s close of 1,525.40. The benchmark index opened 1.63 points lower at 1,523.77.

The market breadth was weaker, with decliners outnumbering gainers 178 to 108, while 282 counters were unchanged, 1,877 untraded, and eight suspended.

Turnover stood at 165.78 million shares worth RM85.02 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said  Wall Street’s initial rally faded as hotter-than-expected inflation data failed to ease tariff concerns and increased bets that the US Federal Reserve will hold interest rates.

“Following Wall Street’s downbeat performance, the local bourse could start on a weaker tone. However, we believe the overall situation may favour the technology stocks with the resumption of chip sales in China, and the technology sector on the local front may see decent buying interest,” it said in a note today.

The brokerage firm also favours the real estate investment trusts sector  on the back of the recent Bank Negara Malaysia overnight policy rate cut, “while the consumer sector may benefit from downtrading activities as inflationary pressures remain sticky.”

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.64, Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM13.84, and CIMB was three sen lower at RM6.60. Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.27 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.58.

In active trade, NexG added half a sen to 48 sen, Nationgate went up by two sen to RM1.51, Green Ocean Corporation inched up one sen to 13.5 sen, Zetrix AI was 1.5 sen higher at 94.5 sen, and TWL remained unchanged at 2.5 sen.

On the broader index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 7.99 points to 11,468.09, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 6.30 points to 11,231.31, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 3.44 points to 11,479.74. The FBM 70 Index narrowed 27.40 points to 16,661.0, while the FBM ACE Index inched down four points to 4,583.62.

By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 17.28 points to 17,485.37, the Energy Index edged down 0.93 of a point to 737.99, and the Plantation Index improved 13.63 points to 7,432.05. The Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 0.02 of a point to 153.37.

-- BERNAMA