Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning, affected by buying activity involving index-linked counters, led by Top Glove.
At 9.31am, the benchmark index of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 6.48 points to 1,563.68 after opening 4.09 points lower at 1,565.99.
According to Bernama, Top Glove dragged down the composite index by 2,449 points after losing 15 sen to RM7.71 as news of the progress of the COVID-19 vaccine has eliminated the risk requirement for rubber glove counters.
Other rubber glove counters, Hartalega fell 12 sen to RM15.38, Kossan Rubber eased four sen to RM6.60, while Supermax contracted 10 sen to RM8.80.
In the broader market, there were 348 gainers and 338 losers while 384 counters were unchanged, 1,092 untraded and 27 others suspended.
Turnover was 2.7 billion amounting to RM694.53 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the local bourse would be stable in the near future with investors continuing to "lock in" the gains made recently and this was considered a healthy movement at the moment.
"We also think that cheap stocks will be at the current level with any weakness will be supported by improved trading liquidity as investors continue to try to get higher returns.
"Following the rise in crude palm oil prices, the plantation sector is likely to rise higher in the near term while the technology sector will also recover, taking cues from overnight strong gains on the Nasdaq," he said in a research note today.
Among heavyweights, Maybank declined six sen to RM7.63, Public Bank declined 10 sen to RM17.58, Tenaga declined 14 sen at RM11.20, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.55.
The healthiest stocks, AT Systematization and EA Holdings fell half-a-sen to 26.5 sen and three sen, respectively, Metronic added three sen to 11.5 sen, while DGB was flat at 4.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index fell 34 points at 11,256.89, the FBM Gold Shariah Index fell 31.68 points to 13,194.89, and the FBMT 100 Index fell 37.56 points to 11,050.95.
FBM 70 was down 17.15 points to 14,544.13 and FBM ACE was down 6.46 points to 11,285.33.
By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 47.56 points to 13,361.78, but the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.47 points to 153.05, and the Plantation Index rose 7.56 points to 7.185.34.
