US Equity Performance ‘Disrupts’ Local Markets

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 Bursa Malaysia opened weaker in trading this morning, taking cues from the overnight losses suffered by US equities.


The local bourse also moved in line with the performance of other regional bourses.


Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.13% to 28,966.03, Japan’s Nikkei was 0.83% lower at 28,816.86 and China’s SSE index was also 0.36% to 3,584.21.


At 9.03am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index declined 6.31 points or 0.39 per cent to 1,584.26 from 1,590.57 at the close of trading on Thursday afternoon.


According to Bernama, the key index opened 0.27 points lower at 1,590.30.


Price movements in the market were negative with losers outpacing gainers in a narrow range of 183 to 175 while 237 counters were unchanged, 1,547 untraded and 12 others suspended.


Turnover was 367.57 million units worth RM111.88 million.


Trading on Wall Street ended relatively lower yesterday after experiencing a difficult session as investors continued to take a cautious stance despite optimistic economic data on employment and services sector activity.


The DJIA index closed 0.07% lower at 34,577.04, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 0.4% and 1% to 4,192.85 and 13,614.51, respectively.


On the local bourse, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said sales activity could be seen at counters related to gloves and vaccines, thus dragging down the healthcare index.


"Taking the negative lead from the US stock market, we expect the local bourse to move flat with the lack of new catalysts in the market," he added.



In addition, the brokerage firm added that MR DIY will replace Supermax on the FBM KLCI following the semi -annual review of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Series conducted in accordance with the basic rules of the index.


Clearly the firm involved, the announcement of the entry could give a bright indication to consumer -related stocks.


In commodity terms, it projects a slight decline in crude palm oil (tracking the movement of soy futures) while crude oil is strong above the US $ 70 level at the moment.


“We think traders can focus on the oil and gas sector in a situation of stronger crude oil prices. Also, we expect lagging technology stocks as well as IT software related segments to be actively traded, ”he said.


Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd expects the local market to tend to move horizontally today due to a lack of catalyst with the FBM KLCI hovering between 1,585 and 1,595.


For heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.20, Public Bank fell three sen to RM4.21, Tenaga declined one sen to RM9.97 while PChem was five sen higher at RM8.10.


The biggest losers included Nestle which fell RM1.10 to RM134.70, Hong Leong Financial which lost 56 sen to RM17.38 and Hartalega which fell 12 sen to RM8.56.


Among the stocks that posted big gains were Computer Form which rose RM1.09 to RM4.73, MMC Corp which strengthened 39 sen to RM1.69 and Box-Pak 10 sen higher at RM1.33.


For active stocks, Zelan rose 6.5 sen to 20 sen, Yong Tai rose 3.5 sen to 30 sen and Tanco was flat at 15 sen.


On the index board, the FBM Gold Index fell 26.39 points to 11,565.83 and the FBMT 100 Index declined 28.91 points to 11,253.75.


The FBM Emas Syariah index declined 19.16 points to 12,800.15, FBM ACE fell 4.42 points to 7,777.35 while FBM 70 rose 23.18 points to 15,031.10.


By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 73.86 points to 15,135.99, the Plantation Index declined 17.67 points to 6,825.12 and the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.01 points to 193.51.

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