Bursa Malaysia declined when it opened this morning, taking cues from Wall Street's weakness at last Friday's close as well as the lack of investor participation.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) key index fell 10.75 points to 1,616.26 after declining 1.66 points to 1,625.35 when it opened compared to 1,627.01 at last Friday's close.
In the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers by 278 to 186 while 310 counters were unchanged, 1,322 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Bernama reported that the volume was 419.16 million units worth RM149.36 million.
Axi global market strategy leader Stephen Innes said Wall Street slumped on Friday due to a large loss in U.S. retail spending in December.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities said with the withdrawal of crude palm oil prices, followed by speculation of another possible round of Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) decline on Wednesday, investors are expected to further reduce their holdings in heavyweights such as plantations and banking.
This action could trigger negative trading sentiment among banking stocks and could drag down the FBM KLCI this week.
"Also, market sentiment may remain weak in the ongoing situation of increasing Covid-19 cases even with the re-enforcement of the Movement Control Order," the firm said in a research note today.
However, the research firm expects some selective segment activities especially in building materials amid strengthening commodity prices such as tin, iron and aluminum.
Among heavyweights, 18 counters were at a loss, led by PetChem, which fell 21 sen to RM7.30, Maybank and CIMB declined 10 sen to RM81.5 and RM4.00 respectively, while Public Bank was down 24 sen. to RM20.96.
On the other hand, Supermax rose eight sen to RM6.78 and Top Glove rose two sen to RM6.44.
For the most active stocks, Pegasus Heights was flat at 2.5 sen, PRG Holdings rose 1.5 sen to 30 sen and Asia Poly rose two sen to 32 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 65.21 points to 11,641.13, the FBMT 100 Index declined 66.82 points to 11,373.71, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 32.35 points to 13,172.34.
FBM 70 fell 52.53 points to 14,775.88 while FBM ACE rose 17.37 points to 10,813.48.
In terms of sector, the Financial Services Index weakened 174.46 points to 14,856.92 and the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 1.11 points to 177.69 while the Plantation Index fell 5.38 points to 7,359.98.
