Bursa Malaysia recorded a decline for the third day in a row after investors took a cautious approach following overnight losses on Wall Street amid concerns over US bond yields, weak oil prices and the rise of the Covid-19 case in Europe. .
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.81 points to 1,592.49 after declining below 1,600 points to end at a daily low of 1,616.73 yesterday.
The index opened 0.83 points lower at 1,591.66 at 9 p.m.
In the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 386 to 198, while 328 counters were unchanged, with 1,311 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 725.96 million shares worth RM284.99 million.
According to Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, Wall Street fell again after the Dow Jones fell 0.9% following a sharp rise in global Covid-19 cases that are likely to hamper economic recovery efforts.
"European stock markets closed lower, while Asian stock markets closed lower following new sanctions in China over human rights violations in Xinjiang," the firm said.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities is of the view that buying support in plantation counters or process equipment companies will occur due to the strengthening of crude palm oil prices.
"Semiconductor counters are likely to recover based on stronger demand and chip production," he said in a post today.
Among heavyweights, Maybank declined two sen to RM8.25, PBBank and Tenaga rose two sen each to RM4.20 and RM10.72 respectively, PChem declined one sen to RM7.91, while IHH was flat at RM5.31 .
For active counters, SMI rose 8.5 sen to 26.5 sen, Widad and Tecfast rose 1.5 sen to 52.5 sen and 52 sen respectively, while Nexgram, BJCorp and SapNRG were all unchanged at 5 sen, 26.5 sen and 15 sen. .
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 30.89 points to 11,698.23, the FBMT 100 declined 25.58 points to 11,378.29 and the FBM Emas Shariah declined 23.14 points to 12,997.75.
FBM 70 was down 56.18 points to 15,453.89 and FBM ACE was down 13.92 points at 10,497.69.
In terms of sector, the Financial Services Index declined 37.7 points to 15,247.52, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.61 points to 189.81, while the Plantation Index rose 3.71 points to 7.138.91.
