Malaysian Stock Market Opens Lower On Continued Selling Momentum

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Bernama) – The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) opened lower Tuesday on continued selling momentum, while tracking the weaker performance of Wall Street. At 9.15 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.48 of a point lower at 1,728.26 from 1,728.74 on Monday and after opening 0.57 point weaker at 1,728.17. A dealer said a late burst of selling left US equity indices lower despite market participants struggling to put last week’s extreme volatility behind them. “The underlying mood of nervousness made so-called safe haven assets such as the yen, Swiss franc and gold more attractive,” he said. Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank lost six sen each to RM9.52 and RM24.92 respectively, and Petronas Chemicals declined four sen to RM9.36. TNB added six sen to RM14.64 and CIMB gained one sen to RM5.94. For actives, Focus Dynamics and Nova MSC improved half-a-sen each to 16 sen and 16.5 sen respectively and Yong Tai added three sen to 65.5 sen. Globaltec and Priceworth were flat at four sen each. The FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 7.71 points to 11,986.68, the FBM Ace Index accelerated 117.07 points to 4,986.44 and the FBM 70 perked 18.631 points to 13,856.44. The FBM Emas Index edged down 0.54 of a point to 11,963.84, but the FBMT 100 Index bagged 1.15 points to 11,795.9. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index inched-up 0.61 of a point to 7,388.06, but the Financial Services Index declined 43.619 points to 17,468.32 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was slightly lower by 0.22 of a point to 171.78. Gainers led losers 145 to 115, with 151 unchanged, 1,487 untraded and 27 suspended. Volume stood at 113.23 million units valued at RM53.16 million. -- BERNAMA