Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia retreated to open slightly lower on Friday, driven by profit-taking activities and mirroring Wall Street's weaker overnight performance. At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.18 points to 1,721.01 from Thursday's close of 1,722.19, after opening 2.33 points weaker at 1,719.86.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, on the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 245 to 112, while 272 counters remained unchanged, 2,106 were untraded, and 12 were suspended. Turnover stood at 179.18 million shares valued at RM79.29 million. Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd noted that the FBM KLCI is expected to trade slightly lower due to the overnight pullback in US semiconductor stocks, with immediate selling pressure concentrated in the local technology sector.
Despite the decline, optimism surrounds the official launch of the Large Scale Solar 6 (LSS6) programme, which could mitigate downside risks. Moving forward, tactical buying interest is anticipated to rotate towards renewable energy and energy storage plays. Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank and CIMB remained flat at RM11.04 and RM7.70, respectively. Public Bank lost one sen to RM5.19, Tenaga Nasional decreased by four sen to RM14.26, while IHH Healthcare increased by two sen to RM8.55.
In terms of active stocks, TWL, Ingenieur, and Kinergy were all flat at 2.5 sen, four sen, and 38.5 sen, respectively. Vinvest decreased by half a sen to one sen, and Nationgate fell by three sen to RM1.14. Among the top gainers, Petronas Dagangan rose by 22 sen to RM19.64, Padini increased by 16 sen to RM1.58, LPI Capital grew by 12 sen to RM15.12, while IOI Properties and Telekom Malaysia each rose by five sen to RM3.94 and RM7.63, respectively.
Conversely, Nestle was the top loser, dropping 94 sen to RM92.06. Malaysian Pacific Industries slipped 26 sen to RM45.02, Press Metal decreased nine sen to RM7.98, while SAM Engineering and Frontken each shed seven sen to RM4.70 and RM4.78, respectively. Among the broader indices, the FBM Emas Index erased 13.30 points to 12,685.92, the FBMT 100 Index weakened 12.51 points to 12,517.10, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 11.47 points to 12,509.80. The FBM Mid 70 Index fell 34.71 points to 17,868.79, while the FBM ACE Index edged down 13.0 points to 4,902.11. By sector, the Financial Services Index reduced by 6.54 points to 20,304.28, the Energy Index eased 3.83 points to 766.06, and the Industrial Products and Services Index contracted 0.94 of a point to 186.99. The Plantation Index, however, gained 17.34 points to 9,491.11.