Bursa Malaysia was overall lower at the start of trading today following continued selling pressure yesterday in weak market sentiment, dealers said.
At 9.23 this morning, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) key indicator index fell 3.53 points to 1,599.04 after opening half a point higher at 1,603.07 compared to 1,602.57 when it closed on Monday.
Bernama reported negative market sentiment with losers outpacing gainers by 445 to 211 while 993 counters were unchanged, 433 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.17 million units worth RM571.48 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's Head of Research, Kenny Yee Shen Pin, expects the FBM KLCI to remain volatile which is affected by significant uncertainties involving glove counters.
"Therefore, the key index is likely to move in the range of around 1,590 to 1,600 today with 1,590 being the closest support level," he said.
However, for a more positive note, the ringgit is currently at a strengthening level for the 52nd week against the US dollar at around RM4.00 against the US dollar, he said.
In this regard, he expects the ringgit to continue to strengthen around 3.80 this year.
Heavyweights saw Maybank lower two sen to RM8.33, Public Bank dropped four sen to RM20.48, Petronas Chemicals fell nine sen to RM7.12 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.52.
Energy added two sen to RM10.48 and Top Glove rose eight sen to RM5.58.
For active stocks, BCM gained one sen to 37 sen, DGB rose half-a-sen to 27.5 sen, Techna-X added 1.5 sen to 16 sen but Niche declined one sen to 27 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index declined 41.19 points to 11,565.27, the FBMT 100 Index declined 41.88 points to 11,302.28, the FBM 70 fell 121 points to 14,877.54, the FBM Gold Shariah Index declined 37.11 points to 12,906.29 while the FBM ACE rose 18.52 points to 10,753.21.
The Industrial Products and Services Index decreased 1.06 points to 174.39, the Financial Services Index declined 63.48 points to 15,178.43 while the Plantation Index decreased 5.52 points to 7,323.98.
