Malaysia's Stock Exchange Opens Easier In Sync With Wall Street

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Shares on Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia's national stock exchange) opened lower on Tuesday due to losses in heavyweights and in line with the weaker overnight performance of Wall Street. At 9.19 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.08 points lower at 1,682.65 from yesterday's close of 1,683.73. The index opened 4.45 points stronger at 1,688.18. Public Bank Investment Bank Bhd said the Dow Jones gave up an earlier gain of 352 points to end 245.39 points lower, staging the biggest intraday reversal in more than eight months. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 closed in correction territory. "The market volatility was driven by news of the possibility of more US-China tariffs to be announced if next month’s meeting between President’s Donald Trump and Xi Jianping fails to ease the trade war. The decline on Asian markets, including Bursa Malaysia, was due to a sell-off in US stocks," it said in a note Tuesday. On Bursa Malaysia, losers led gainers 209 to 176 with 176 unchanged, 1,429 counters untraded and 91 others suspended. Volume stood at 205.9 million units valued at US$19.29 million (RM80.66 million, US$1 = RM4.18) Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.27, Public Bank fell six sen to RM24.52, CIMB declined two sen to RM5.58, while Tenaga was 14 sen better at RM14.24 and Petronas Chemicals rose five sen to RM9.36. For actives, Hubline was flat at 4.5 sen, Datasonic improved 1.5 sen to 32 sen, Orion IXL added half-a-sen to 11 sen, while Sapura Energy and Hibiscus Petroleum shed 1.5 sen to 31 sen and 99.5 sen respectively. The FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 14.33 points to 11,511.32, the FBM Ace Index fell 27.76 points to 4,684.58 and the FBM 70 was down 54.49 points at 13,076.74. The FBM Emas Index declined 19.64 points to 11,535.42 and the FBMT 100 Index lost 16.39 points to 11,402.83. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index slid 3.02 points to 7,279.2, the Financial Services Index was 21.26 points lower at 17,011.07, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.01 of-a-point better at 167.98. -- BERNAMA