Bursa Malaysia opened higher at the beginning of this week's trading but could not last long as it looked back to decline later.
The factor was driven by the Wall Street market closing at its latest high on Friday, supported by strong corporate profits as well as central bank support for financial markets.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 4.35 points to 1,519.09 from 1,523.44 at the close on Friday.
According to Bernama, the market index traded 1.03 points higher at 1,524.47.
Through the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 272 to 185, while 327 counters were unchanged, 1,453 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 458.67 million units worth RM229.01 million.
Malacca Securities said that the FBM KLCI closed trading this week on a negative note following a mixed-deck regional performance due to the sharp rise in Covid-19 infections globally.
According to the brokerage firm, they hope that investors pay more attention to the vaccination rate that is being implemented and has remained at 400,000 injection doses a day compared to the daily infection rate of Covid-19.
The brokerage firm is confident and believes that the matter will indirectly help re -stabilize market sentiment and increase focus on stock market recovery.
Positive developments on the Nasdaq index are likely to continue to shine on local tech stocks.
"Plantation counters are also expected to increase profits in line with rising CPO prices amid concerns over weaker output," the brokerage firm added.
For heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals declined two sen to RM8.03 and IHH Healthcare declined five sen to RM5.76.
Maybank, Public Bank and TNB were unchanged at RM8.03, RM4.02 and RM9.73 respectively.
Looking at active stocks, SMTrack rose 3.5 sen to 11.5 sen, MAG Holdings rose one sen to 20.5 sen, PUC rose two sen to 17.5 sen, LYC Healthcare jumped three sen to 34.5 sen, while XOX warrants were unchanged at one sen.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index declined 15.12 points to 11,163.0, the FBM ACE ‘rocketed’ 59.06 points to 7,482.29 and the FBM 70 rose 28.92 points to 14,750.23.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was down 18.26 points at 12,306.90 and the FBMT 100 Index was down 17.50 points at 10,855.12.
By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 26.03 points to 14,818.90, while the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.04 points to 189.91 and the Plantation Index declined 25.38 points to 6,218.16.
