KUALA LUMPUR - Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday due to the absence of fresh leads as the return of foreign funds seems to be drying up amid the downbeat Wall Street performance overnight, said a dealer.
At 9.08 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.84 of-a-point to 1,439.76 from Thursday's closing of 1,440.60.
The benchmark index opened 0.11 of-a-point better at 1,440.71.
Likewise, on the broader market, decliners beat gainers 140 to 103, while 204 counters were unchanged, 1,945 untraded and 24 suspended.
Turnover stood at 200.82 million units worth RM56.80 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.76 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.76 per cent despite the United States (US) 10-year yield easing to 4.849 per cent.
"Nonetheless, we believe funds diversification to be ongoing on the local bourse and we envisage the emerging markets to benefit going forward," he told Bernama.
For today, Thong expects the FBM KLCI index to trend within the 1,435 to 1,445 range.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were unchanged at RM9.00 and RM7.20, respectively, Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional shed one sen to RM4.16 and RM9.88 respectively, while CIMB lost three sen to RM5.65.
Of the actives, CSH Alliance and Leform rose half-a-sen each to 6.5 sen and 25 sen respectively, Tanco and Meta Bright were flat at 57.5 sen and 26 sen respectively, and MMAG added one sen to 11 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 9.04 points to 10,622.66, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 8.10 points to 10,296.19 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 2.44 points to 10,840.98.
The FBM 70 Index was 20.01 points weaker at 14,002.66 and the FBM ACE Index slipped 12.21 points to 5,037.38.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.01 of-a-point lower at 171.85, the Financial Services Index fell 24.28 points to 16,218.51 and the Energy Index fell 2.43 points to 868.23.
The Plantation Index perked up 8.54 points to 6,884.02. - BERNAMA