Bursa Malaysia declined slightly in early trade today following moderate profit-taking activity involving selected consumer product counters as mixed sentiments dominated regional markets.
At 9.15am this morning, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) key index slipped 4.254 points to 1,619.23 from 1,623.47 at the end of Monday's trading.
The benchmark index fell 0.26 points to 1,623.21 as the market opened this morning.
Market sentiment was generally negative with losers outpacing gainers by 294 to 260 while 384 other counters were unchanged, 1,262 untraded and 29 others suspended.
Bernama reported that turnover stood at 769.23 million shares worth RM490.78 million.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities through its research note expects market sentiment to remain cautious ahead of the announcement of new movement restrictions following the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The FBM KLCI, for example, recorded an increase for the third consecutive session, partly driven by significant buying activity in glove counters following the sharp rise in Covid-19 in several countries, especially in India and Brazil," he said.
However, the brokerage firm said the upward momentum of the glove stock would wane as Covid-19 cases declined again apart from being driven by the implementation of the vaccination program.
“We remain optimistic about the packaging -related stocks due to the significant increase in it as well as shipments during the implementation period of the Movement Control Order (PKP). In addition, investors may also be interested in technology-related stocks after the overnight rise by the Nasdaq market.
"In fact, transportation and logistics stocks also remain the focus driven by high demand for it," the firm said.
Nestle and Petronas Dagangan emerged as the two biggest losers on Bursa Malaysia, declining 80 sen and 20 sen respectively to RM135.70 and RM20.10
Heavyweights saw Maybank decline 5.0 sen to RM8.31, Public Bank declined 1.0 sen to RM4.18, Petronas Chemicals declined 7.0 sen to RM7.84 while TNB was flat at RM10 and Top Glove instead rose 7.0 sen to RM5.97.
For active stocks, Focus Dynamics and Kanger International gained 1.0 sen to 15.5 sen and 8.0 sen, respectively, KTG rose half-a-sen to 26 sen and Hiap Teck gained 1.5 sen to 55 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index declined 23.62 points to 11,914.29; FBMT 100 dropped 27.16 points to 11,565.42; FBM 70 low 24.85 points to 15,692.77; FBM Emas Shariah contracted 7.79 points to 13,436.52 while FBM ACE rose 101.44 points to 9,002.36.
By sector, the Plantation Index decreased 16.31 points to 6,868.43, the Financial Services Index decreased 62.19 points to 14,989.42 and the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased 0.36 points to 197.30.
