KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated to open lower on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street’s mixed performance overnight as persistent geopolitical uncertainties and rebounding oil prices weighed on market sentiment.
Malacca Securities expects cautious sentiment to prevail on the local bourse, with investors likely to remain selective in positioning themselves for stocks that could benefit from Budget 2027.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 6.21 points, or 0.38%, to 1,611.80 from yesterday’s close of 1,618.01. The index opened 1.39 points weaker at 1,616.62.
Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 293 to 125, while 274 counters were unchanged, 2,134 were untraded, and 21 were suspended.
Turnover stood at 263.66 million units worth RM130.24 million.
The brokerage said Wall Street and Asian markets closed mixed on Monday amid rising oil prices after an attack on Riyadh’s international airport, and ahead of US third-quarter earnings season, with lingering worries on AI tech stocks and stretched valuations amid rising AI financing costs.
“Given ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and rebounding oil prices, we expect cautious sentiment to spill over into the local bourse, with investors remaining selective about post-Budget 2027 beneficiaries, while we are positive on construction companies,” it said in a research note.
Among the heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals rose two sen to RM4.27, Maybank added one sen to RM9.96, and PPB was six sen higher at RM9.10. Both Nestle was flat at RM91.10, while IOI Corporation fell at one sen to RM4.56.
In active trade, Zetrix AI and SLGC were flat at 7.5 sen and 24.5 sen, respectively. JAKS Resources eased half a sen to 16.5 sen, and Land & General decreased one sen to 18 sen. Mestron gained half a sen to 8.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, Critical increased 10 sen to RM2.85, Hengyuan Refining added eight sen to RM3.63, MN Holdings, Oriental Interest and United Malacca added seven sen each to RM4.03, RM1.30 and RM6.04, respectively.
Among the top losers, Malaysian Pacific and PJ Bumi fell 34 sen each to RM42.68 and RM3.96, respectively. UMS slid 28 sen to RM8.62, MI Technovation decreased 25 sen to RM6.77, and Petronas Dagangan lost 22 sen to RM19.16.
On the index board, the FBM Mid 70 Index fell 69.37 points to 17,412.79, while the FBM Emas Index weakened 48.29 points to 12,056.41. The FBM Top 100 Index dropped 46.06 points to 11,841.78, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 64.08 points to 12,066.99, and the FBM ACE Index edged down 34.43 points to 5,526.27.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 30.99 points to 18,563.14, the Industrial Products and Services Index reduced 1.45 points to 179.32, and the Plantation Index fell 7.04 points to 8,8804.86. The Energy Index gained 0.85 of-a-point to 835.01.