Bursa Malaysia opened mixed, but investors were more cautious about Wall Street's low sentiment after the United States (US) largest unemployment claims outpaced stimulus package assistance.
At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) market indicator declined 3.52 points to 1,632.19 from 1,635.71 when it closed yesterday.
Bernama reported that the index opened 1.56 points to 1,637.27.
In the overall market, gainers outnumbered losers by 281 to 251, while 319 counters were unchanged, 1,257 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 658 million units worth RM354.29 million.
Prospective US President Joe Biden will launch a $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 plan to curb the rise of Covid-19 cases and strengthen the US economy.
However, the US stock market reacted negatively after a Labor Department report showed early unemployment claims jumped by 181,000, the highest level in more than four months last week although investors saw the unfavorable data as positive for the market as it could put pressure on lawmakers. law to approve more stimuli.
At the close of the Wall Street trading session, the Dow Jones declined 0.22%, the Nasdaq declined 0.12% and the S&P declined 0.38%.
Malacca Securities said, tracking the negative sentiment on Wall Street, apart from the decline in the FBM KLCI yesterday, the firm expects trading sentiment at the local level has not changed much.
"The increase in technology stocks is expected to subside for a while, with traders recording profits in the next few days.
"Based on several sectors need to operate under the Movement Control Order (PKP) 2.0, companies will be able to record income at least during this quarter," he said in a note today.
Meanwhile, the research firm expects demand for the construction sector, building materials as well as oil and gas to increase.
He said oil and gas counters were expected to trade higher today as the sector would benefit from strong crude oil prices, trading above US $ 56 per barrel at the moment.
Among heavyweights, the banking counter was lower after rising yesterday with Maybank down nine sen to RM8.26, Public Bank down 16 sen to RM21.54 and CIMB declining five sen to RM4.09.
Press Metal declined 11 sen to RM8.56 and Hartelega decreased 10 sen to RM12.20.
Of the active stocks, XOX and Iris, declined half-a-sen to 10.5 sen and 41 sen, respectively.
GPA rose one sen to 12 sen and JCY International decreased 5.5 sen to 53 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 16.37 points to 11,733.05, the FBMT 100 Index declined 23.10 points to 11,465.51, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 11.49 points to 13,227.06.
FBM 70 decreased 23.61 points to 14,815.89 and FBM ACE rose 32.24 points to 10.792.31.
By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 98.49 points to 15,078.12, the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 0.30 points to 178.41, the Plantation Index rose 0.98 points to 7,454.38 and the Healthcare Index rose 3.93 points to 3,623.08.
