Malaysia Stock Market Open Lower On Weak Wall St, Mideast Tension

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Bernama) -- Share prices on the Malaysia stock market (Bursa Malaysia) opened lower Tuesday prompted by the weak overnight performance on Wall Street and geopolitical tension in the Middle East. At 9.15 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.89 points or 0.22 per cent easier at 1,784.06 from Monday's 1,787.95, after opening 0.46 of-a-point lower at 1,787.49. Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 206 to 157 while 245 counters were unchanged, 1,169 untraded and 29 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 277.46 million shares worth RM127.94 million. Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped two sen to RM9.57, Public Bank inched down four sen to RM20.26, TNB rose six sen to RM13.88, Sime Darby was flat at RM9.58 while CIMB, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals eased four sen each to RM6.17, RM20.26 and RM7.18, respectively. Actively traded stocks this morning included Anzo, China Automobile, Perak Transit, XingQuan, Inta Bina and XOX. A dealer said Bursa was in sync this morning with most Asian stocks which retreated as Wall Street stumbled overnight on concerns of the severing of ties with Qatar by other Arab states. "Market sentiment for equities turned negative on volatile crude oil prices as the Middle-East tensions heightened. "But, sustained buying interest was seen (at Bursa) for selected blue chips,"he said, adding that technically, FBM KLCI's heavyweights especially banking stocks may potentially lift the the key index to test the 1,800 level in the near-term. The FBM Emas Index contracted 26.77 points to 12,724.53, the FBMT100 Index declined 27.76 points to 12,363.52 while the FBM Emas Syariah Index shed 32.71 points to 12,900.68. The FBM 70 inched down 36.94 points to 15,184.20 while the FBM Ace crawled up 4.86 points to 6,297.00. On a sectorial basis, the Industrial Index slipped 7.45 points to 3,304.39, the Finance Index shaved off 23.16 points to 16,871.72 while the Plantation Index trimmed 7.59 points to 7,951.59. -- BERNAMA