The index on Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning but declined later due to cautious sentiment ahead of the US re-election results which affected investors' interest in risk, dealers said.
At 9.16am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) market indicator fell 5.89 points to 1,602.46 after opening 2.4 points higher at 1,610.78 from 1,608.35 when it closed on Tuesday.
In the overall market, gainers outnumbered losers by 293 to 252, while 350 counters were unchanged, 1,187 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Bernama reported volume of 719.65 million units worth RM370.11 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's Head of Research, Kenny Yee Shen Pin, said US stocks recovered yesterday as buyers returned following better economic data and hoped for a quick US economic recovery.
However, he said sentiment remained low as many waited for the results of the Georgia Senate re-election.
"At the local level, we are confident that the FBM KLCI will trade higher today due to better crude oil prices and we expect the index to be in the range of 1,610 / 15 due to the volatile glove counter.
"For today, we expect buying interest to shift to oil and gas (O&G) stocks following better crude oil prices with Brent crude oil prices now shifting close to US $ 54 a barrel," he said in a note today.
He said he was confident that some of the O&G shares that needed to be looked at were Hibiscus, Reach, Uzma, KNM, Reservoir Link and All Dynamics.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank declined four sen to RM8.27, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare declined 12 sen to RM20.50 and RM5.53, respectively, and Tenaga declined 10 sen to RM10.44.
However, Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM7.13 and Top Glove rose six sen to RM5.78.
Of the active stocks, DGB rose five sen to 32 sen, AT Systematization and Iris rose half-a-sen to 18 sen and 43 sen, Vortex added one sen to six sen and Bumi Armada added two sen to 37 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 31.6 points to 11,587.79, the FBMT 100 Index declined 37.42 points to 11,320.57, the FBM 70 decreased 32.76 points to 14,878.68 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 13.49 points to 12,961.269.
However, FBM ACE rose 50.82 points to 10,867.92.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.29 points to 174.58, the Plantation Index rose 6.08 points to 7,360.74, however the Financial Services Index declined 104.28 points to 15,099.88.
