Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Tuesday as early profit-taking emerged amid weaker crude oil prices, following signs of a potential de-escalation in tensions between the United States (US) and Iran. At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 2.43 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 1,706.07 from Monday's close of 1,708.50. The benchmark index opened 1.73 points lower at 1,706.77.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, on the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 253 to 158, while 305 counters were unchanged, 1,971 were untraded, and 67 were suspended. Turnover stood at 187.76 million shares worth RM130.35 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, noted that US stock futures were broadly higher following US President Donald Trump's statement that the US-Iran deal is within reach. As a result, crude oil prices declined, with the Brent crude now trending at around US$96 per barrel. Thong added that for the local bourse, traders were mostly on the sidelines, as illustrated by the muted trading volume, at just above the three billion share threshold. He expects the FBM KLCI to hover within the 1,700-1,715 range.
Among heavyweight stocks, Maybank rose two sen to RM11.08 and Public Bank remained unchanged at RM4.76, while Tenaga Nasional slipped four sen to RM14.42, CIMB lost two sen to RM7.71, and IHH Healthcare shed nine sen to RM8.87. Active stocks such as Zetrix AI gained two sen to 82.5 sen, IFCA MSC garnered one sen to 27.5 sen, and Skychip added five sen to RM2.97, while Genetec Technology reduced 1.5 sen to 28.5 sen and Top Glove contracted two sen to 77.5 sen.
Top gainers included Greatech Technology, which advanced 13 sen to RM2.87, Scicom, which rose 12 sen to RM1.76, Westports, which gained 10 sen to RM6.17, ITMax System, which notched up nine sen to RM4.85, and MI Technovation, which added eight sen to RM4.61. Conversely, Nestle fell RM1.40 to RM94.40, Malaysian Pacific Industries lost 18 sen to RM47.82, Panasonic Manufacturing slid 17 sen to RM7.08, Kelington declined 14 sen to RM7.19, and United U-LI narrowed 11 sen to RM1.40.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 18.35 points to 12,661.99, the FBM Top 100 Index eased 16.03 points to 12,502.51, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 23.83 points to 12,584.01, the FBM Mid 70 Index declined 15.69 points to 18,251.20, and the FBM ACE Index edged down 1.54 points to 4,720.18. By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index grew 0.22 of a point to 197.94, while the Financial Services Index trimmed 3.72 points to 20,007.83, the Energy Index slipped 2.29 points to 783.63, and the Plantation Index dropped 6.82 points to 8,519.45.