Bursa: Bursa Malaysia opened lower, taking its cue from Wall Street's mixed performance overnight. Investors remained cautious due to mixed sentiment surrounding artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, at 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 8.40 points to 1,732.54 from Thursday's close of 1,740.94, after opening 3.88 points lower at 1,737.06. Market breadth was negative, with 297 losers outnumbering 142 gainers, while 274 counters remained unchanged. A total of 1,977 counters were untraded, and 76 were suspended. Turnover stood at 214.54 million shares worth RM152.35 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, noted that Wall Street closed mixed as AI-related stocks came under pressure. Notably, Nvidia and US cloud-based software company Salesforce saw declines despite reporting better-than-expected results. He also mentioned that the US 10-year yield fell to 4.01 percent.
Thong highlighted that the FBM KLCI's decline presented a bargain-hunting opportunity, especially if the index approaches the 1,730 level. Despite cautious external sentiment, Thong expects the index to remain within the 1,735-1,745 range.
Among heavyweight counters, Maybank fell six sen to RM11.94, Public Bank shed five sen to RM4.95, and CIMB Group lost 12 sen to RM8.34. Tenaga Nasional, however, advanced 16 sen to RM14.34, while IHH Healthcare eased seven sen to RM8.95.
On the most active list, MBSB dropped 4.5 sen to 71.5 sen, Velesto Energy slid half-a-sen to 30 sen, Bintai Kinden gained one sen to 10.5 sen, Zetrix AI rose two sen to 82 sen, and Ambest slipped 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen.
Top gainers included Greatech, which increased by 23 sen to RM2.20, MHC Plantations, which rose 13 sen to RM1.76, Kelington, which climbed 13 sen to RM5.34, Vitrox, which added 11 sen to RM4.63, and Time dotCom, which rose 11 sen to RM6.27.
Top losers included Ayer Holdings, which fell 37 sen to RM7.01, Batu Kawan, which decreased 32 sen to RM19.38, United Plantations, which retreated 24 sen to RM29.76, Ajinomoto, which declined 20 sen to RM13.60, and Dufu Technology, which slid 18 sen to RM1.58.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index fell 74.60 points to 12,519.71, the FBM Emas Index lost 72.18 points to 12,696.42, the FBM 70 Index eased 34.77 points to 17,663.47, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 46.95 points to 12,264.76, and the FBM ACE Index slipped 20.83 points to 4,743.72.
By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 156.40 points to 21,309.94, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 1.26 points to 174.08, the Energy Index slipped 4.90 points to 754.56, and the Plantation Index declined 57.84 points to 8,293.71.