Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday, paring gains from the previous day in line with weaker regional market performances, as investors remained cautious amid the ongoing United States government shutdown. At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.38 points or 0.21 percent, to 1,626.29 after closing at 1,629.67 on Thursday. The benchmark index opened 1.51 points lower at 1,628.16.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, market breadth was negative, with 195 decliners against 157 gainers, while 311 counters were unchanged, 1,966 untraded, and eight suspended. Turnover stood at 197.41 million shares worth RM95.80 million. The local market tracked regional losses, with Japan's Nikkei slipping 0.42 percent to 48,376.10, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.29 percent at 26,752.58. However, Singapore's Straits Times Index remained unchanged at 4,440.50, while South Korea's Kospi gained 1.72 percent to 3,610.31.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, noted that overnight, Wall Street ended lower as the US government stalemate continues with no signs of any agreement. He added that foreign funds likely remained net sellers, with net outflows amounting to RM878 million over the last three days. Despite this trend, domestic funds are believed to be accumulating local stocks, with retail participation potentially improving as observed from the uptick in trading volume above 4.7 billion shares yesterday.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM9.97, Public Bank was one sen lower at RM4.28, CIMB Group fell two sen to RM7.55, while Tenaga Nasional remained unchanged at RM13.28, and IHH Healthcare gained three sen to RM8.13. On the most active list, Top Glove increased 1.5 sen to 69.5 sen, TWL was flat at three sen, Hartalega grew two sen to RM1.32, while Borneo Oil and Supermax added half-a-sen each to one sen and 51 sen, respectively.
Top gainers included VSTECS, up 13 sen to RM4.19; Hong Leong Financial climbed 12 sen to RM17; SAM Engineering advanced 11 sen to RM4.65; Malaysian Pacific Industries, 10 sen higher at RM31.26; and UWC advanced seven sen to RM4.39. Top losers included PPB and United Plantations, down eight sen each to RM10.92 and RM23.62, respectively; Vitrox, Apex Healthcare and Hong Leong Industries were all six sen lower at RM4.48, RM2.41 and RM14.22, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 21.08 points to 12,160.27, the FBM 100 Index dropped 21.61 points to 11,886.09, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 11.56 points to 12,234.55. The FBM 70 Index dipped 18.0 points to 17,235.60, while the FBM ACE Index edged down 8.28 points to 5,282.85. By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.21 of a point to 174.65, the Plantation Index erased 5.62 points to 7,898.83, the Financial Services Index declined 67.31 points to 18,385.54, while the Energy Index bagged 2.50 points to 797.46.