Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning due to a lack of market catalyst with sentiment further affected by profit-taking activities after the local bourse made a profit recently.
The weak performance was also due to investor concern over the emergence of new variants of the virus in Europe.
At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) benchmark fell 6.97 points to 1,640.92 after opening 1.09 points lower at 1,646.8 this morning.
Bernama reported that, in the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 384 to 154 while 319 counters were unchanged, 1,280 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover was 470.75 million units worth RM224.84 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's Chief Researcher, Kenny Yee Shen Pin said, the profit-taking activity continued at the FBM KLCI after recording a recent profit and may enter a stable phase ahead of the year-end holiday.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the market was shocked by the news of a new variant of the Covid-19 virus which caused another restriction of movement to be enforced in the United Kingdom (UK) and this negative sentiment may be 'contagious' to the local market.
Meanwhile, the research firm also expects the FBM KLCI to experience a technical rebound with a support level of 1,640 followed by 1,620 while a barrier level of around 1,680-1,700.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell 10 sen to RM8.38, Public Bank declined six sen to RM20.60, Tenaga lower four sen to RM10.64, Petronas Chemicals fell eight sen to RM7.46, and IHH Healthcare declined one. sen to RM5.74.
However, Top Glove and Hartalega rose seven sen and eight sen respectively to RM6.69 and RM12.58, respectively.
The healthiest counters, IRIS added two sen to 41 sen, Fintec and Vivocom rose half-a-sen to 10 sen and RM1.03 respectively while Key Alliance and Techna-X, both remained at 5.5 sen and 16.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 64.49 points to 11,784.33, the FBMT 100 Index fell 63.31 points to 11,550.86, the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 37.24 points to 13,249.3, and the FBM 70 declined 137.99 points to 15,020.33.
However, FBM ACE increased 43.88 points to 10,522.33.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 1.4 points to 173.56, the Plantation Index declined 9.17 points to 7,349.02, and the Financial Services Index declined 126.78 points to 15,256.8.
