Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Thursday following lively profit-taking activities since the beginning of the week.
At 2.15pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 8.12 points to 1,591.67 from 1,599.79 when it closed on Wednesday yesterday. This suggests the index is starting to fall below the 1,600 level since it has remained high since early May.
The benchmark index opened 3.52 points lower at 1,596.27.
Overall market sentiment was negative as losers outnumbered gainers by 280 to 173. Meanwhile, 326 counters were unchanged, 1,633 counters were untraded and five others were suspended.
The total turnover was 422.43 million units worth RM150.26 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd Vice President of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI showed little change and it fell below the psychological level of 1,600 due to continued profit taking activities.
He was surprised by the lack of buying interest in the local stock exchange lately as some buying was expected during the current cheap stocks as the index was already below the 1,600 level.
He also said that they believe the market conditions are still positive and expect the index to be in the 1,600 to 1,610 trend with interest in bank and telecommunication counters.
On the local bourse, heavyweights showed a mixed performance with AMMB (AmBank) down 4.0 sen to RM4.15, YTL Corporation down 6.0 sen to RM3.52, Petronas Gas (PetGas) down 30 sen to RM17.56, Tenaga Nasional down 10 sen to RM13.76, and Axiata Group weakened 4.0 sen to RM2.68.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 46.92 points to 12,245.12, the FBMT 100 Index fell 46.51 points to 11,820.99 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 44.74 points to 12,590.13.
The FBM 70 Index fell 35.08 points to 17,896.00, and the FBM ACE Index fell 23.33 points to 5,772.87.
By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 55.45 points to 17,421.60, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.10 points to 197.50, the Energy Index was down 1.18 points to 982.20, and the Plantation Index added 3.24 points to 7,006.41.
