Bursa Malaysia Slips After Early Gains Amid Profit-taking
By Abdul Hamid A Rahman
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Thursday but slipped into negative territory amid profit-taking, despite Wall Street’s overnight rally.
At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.48 points to 1,744.33, down from Wednesday’s close of 1,747.81, after opening 1.62 points higher at 1,749.43.
Market breadth was negative, with losers outnumbering gainers 215 to 184, while 290 counters remained unchanged. A total of 2,080 counters were untraded, and 165 were suspended. Turnover stood at 225.61 million shares worth RM163.25 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street’s uptrend persisted as concerns over artificial intelligence disruptions appeared overblown.
“Retail funds in the FBM KLCI have seen modest inflows over the past two days.
“While overall value remains low, the return of retail funds is encouraging. We expect the index to trade between 1,745 and 1,755 today,” he told Bernama.
Among heavyweight counters, Maybank fell 12 sen to RM12.24, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.96, and CIMB Group slipped two sen to RM8.45. Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were unchanged at RM14.18 and RM9.00, respectively.
On the most active list, Capital A was steady at 60.5 sen, G3 Global eased half a sen to 1.5 sen, Nationgate declined 7.5 sen to 93.5 sen, NEXG slipped 1.5 sen to 27.5 sen, and Aquawalk shed four sen to 32 sen.
Top gainers included Nestle, up 50 sen to RM111.00, Sunway Construction, rising 25 sen to RM7.15, Kelington, up 24 sen to RM5.36, Malaysian Pacific, up 20 sen to RM32.20, and Kuala Lumpur Kepong, climbing 18 sen to RM19.36.
Top losers included Dutch Lady, down RM1.08 to RM32.00, Petronas Gas, off 26 sen to RM18.22, Amway, down 22 sen to RM5.15, Telekom Malaysia, falling 13 sen to RM7.62, and Hap Seng Plantations, down 11 sen to RM2.20.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index fell 18.64 points to 12,625.53, the FBM Emas Index lost 20.77 points to 12,802.82, the FBM 70 Index gained 3.11 points to 17,772.19, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 7.42 points to 12,337.35, and the FBM ACE Index added 6.08 points to 4,808.03.
By sector, the Financial Services Index slid 71.32 points to 21,559.81, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.89 of-a-point to 175.85, the Energy Index slipped 0.43 of-a-point to 769.30, and the Plantation Index declined 22.58 points to 8,364.11.
-- BERNAMA