Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange of Malaysia, opened lower Wednesday, taking its cue from the negative Wall Street performance.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down by 4.87 points to 1,453.80 from yesterday’s closing of 1,458.67.

The key index opened 3.2 points lower at 1,455.47.

Market breadth was negative with decliners surpassing gainers 266 to 74, while 206 counters were unchanged, 1,697 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 144.52 million units worth RM61.02 million (US$1 = RM4.50)

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed sharply lower after the United States (US) Federal Reserves (Fed) chair Jerome Powell suggested that the interest rate needs to go higher and longer in the Fed’s Semiannual Monetary Report to the US Congress.

His hawkish statement fueled concerns of a larger rate hike in the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting on March 21-22.

“We expect some headwinds in the market today following the Fed’s rate commentary, thus expect the index to trend in the 1,450-1,460 range amid regional weaknesses,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Thong expects oil and gas stocks to experience some selling pressure following the decline in crude oil prices, due to inventory build-up that saw Brent crude closing lower at US$83 per barrel.

In the meantime, Bursa heavyweights Tenaga declined two sen to RM9.36, Hong Leong Bank eased six sen to RM20.50, Petronas Chemicals and Telekom went down three sen each to RM7.21 and RM4.92, respectively, while Nestle was flat at RM135.

Among the actives, Kejuruteraan Asastera, Advance Synergy, and Perdana Petroleum inched down half-a-sen to 33 sen, 13.5 sen and 20 sen, respectively, and Icon Offshore eased one sen to 8.5 sen, while YBS International gained 1.5 sen to 61.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 37.45 points to 10,593.91, the FBM 70 Index fell 45.39 points to 13,453.56, the FBMT 100 Index dwindled 34.47 points to 10,272.38, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 45.60 points to 10,853.86, and the FBM ACE Index slid 32.88 points to 5,453.61.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index reduced by 34.23 points to 16,082.05, the Plantation Index shrank 74.50 points to 6,935.50, and the Energy Index narrowed by 12.62 points to 882.70, while the Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 0.29 of-a-point to 177.52.

Source: NAM News Network