Bursa Malaysia opened lower in morning trading today on cautious market sentiment, with selling activity mostly involving heavyweights, led by Axiata and Digi.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index declined 4.01 points to 1,608.24 from 1,612.25 at the close of Friday afternoon last week.
Bernama reported that the key index opened weaker by 1.71 points to 1,613.96.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 261 to 233 while 1,051 counters were unchanged, 612 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover was 953.78 million shares worth RM458.18 million.
According to a ‘trader’, Axiata and Digi are in selling mode today as confidence in the merger between the two telcos has begun to wane.
Digi dropped 18 sen to RM4.28 while Axiata declined 13 sen to RM3.98, dragging the composite index down by a combined 4.95 points.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said market sentiment would remain volatile amid rising Covid-19 cases despite the ongoing vaccine program, coupled with the development of a new wave of Covid-19 cases in several countries, including Europe and Asia.
"With the new wave of Covid-19 cases in certain countries, we think investors may return to focus on healthcare stocks," he said in a note today.
According to him, the FBM KLCI may rise higher for this week with the resistance level set between 1,615 and 1,635 while the support level is between 1,565 and 1,575.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.31, Public Bank rose one sen to RM4.21 while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.83.
Tenaga and IHH Healthcare dropped two sen each to RM10.22 and RM5.28, respectively.
For active counters, Lion Industries remained at 88 sen, Daya Material and Luster Industries gained one sen each to 25 sen and 26.5 sen, respectively, while Ucrest added 1.5 sen to 27 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 19.36 points to 11,879.56, the FBMT 100 declined 18.31 points to 11,528.25, the FBM Emas Syariah declined 24.8 points to 13,256.36 and the FBM ACE fell 38.48 points to 9,957.06.
However, FBM 70 rose 14.86 points to 15,801.83.
By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.39 points to 193.95, the Plantation Index rose 5.51 points to
6,989.14 while the Financial Services Index fell 15.97 points to 15,197.86.
