Bursa Malaysia opened lower during early trade today with the key index easing from yesterday's gains, following selling in heavyweights led by Top Glove.
At 9.15am, the market benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.49 points to 1,570.53 from 1,574.02 when it closed on Tuesday.
Bernama reported that the index opened 2.26 points lower at 1,571.76.
On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers by 241 to 186, while 333 counters were unchanged, 1,445 counters untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 599.97 million units worth RM298.18 million.
Top Glove dragged the composite index down 3.635 points after declining six sen or 1.29% to RM4.41 with 2.44 million shares traded.
The decline in new daily Covid-19 cases in the country with daily numbers remaining below 5,000 for two consecutive days, has dampened interest in rubber glove stocks.
Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a post on Twitter that a total of 4,743 cases were recorded yesterday, an increase of 232 cases from 4,611 reported last Monday.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects that with the US stock market continuing to rebound coupled with rising vaccination rates in Malaysia, the buying interest may have a spillover effect on stocks in the local market.
“Investors are expected to have some continued buying interest in telecommunications and media counters following the announcement of the Celcom-Digi merger.
"In addition, the gradual increase in the daily vaccination rate is expected to give something positive to rehabilitation -themed sectors such as consumers as well as transportation and logistics," he said in a research note today.
Among heavyweights, PetChem rose two sen to RM8.00, while Maybank, Public Bank, Tenaga and IHH were flat at RM8.20, RM4.20, RM10.04 and RM5.75 respectively.
Among active stocks, Serba Dinamik fell 1.5 sen to 61 sen, Saudee rose two sen to 17 sen, Sasbadi added 1.5 sen to 27 sen, while Tanco, Sanichi and MMAG were flat at 15 sen, eight sen and 16 sen respectively.
Pekat Group Bhd, which first listed on the ACE Market on Wednesday, recorded a strong position with a premium of 53 sen to 85 sen, compared to its initial public offering price of 32 sen, with 30.58 million shares traded.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 16.03 points to 11,458.59, the FBMT 100 Index declined 17.0 points to 11,151.0, the FBM ACE was down 3.24 points to 7,619.25 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 28.71 points to 12,567.96.
However, FBM 70 added 7.92 points to 14,873.72.
By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 1.45 points to 15,289.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.12 points to 189.57 and the Plantation Index added 0.15 points to 6,538.33.
