Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia opened with mixed signals on Tuesday, as the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) experienced a decline, reflecting subdued investor activity. At 9.05 am, the FBM KLCI showed a decrease of 5.64 points, or 0.34 percent, positioning the index at 1,674.68, following a close at 1,680.32 on Monday. The index initially dropped 1.91 points, starting the day at 1,678.41.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the broader market observed gainers outnumbering losers 158 to 128, while 281 counters remained unchanged. Additionally, 2,082 counters were untraded, and 11 were suspended. The turnover registered was 101.17 million shares, valued at RM89.15 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, provided insights on the market's performance, anticipating the benchmark index to oscillate between 1,675 and 1,685, with expectations to surpass the 1,700 mark eventually. Thong noted the potential for blue-chip stocks' strong performance to stimulate liquidity flow towards smaller-cap spaces, though retail investors currently remain on the sidelines due to a lack of catalysts.
In the heavyweight stocks segment, RHB Bank increased by one sen to RM7.74, and 99 Speed Mart gained two sen to RM3.84. TNB and Hong Leong Bank remained unchanged at RM13.74 and RM22.72, respectively. Meanwhile, Maybank saw a decrease of six sen to RM10.50, CIMB dropped nine sen to RM8.15, and Public Bank fell by one sen to RM4.55.
In terms of active stocks, Insight Analytics saw a rise of seven sen to RM1.53, while MMAG and MRCB increased by half-a-sen each, reaching 7.5 sen and 39 sen, respectively. Tanco and Sentoria remained stable at RM1.18 and two sen, while Oxford Innotech decreased by one sen to 28.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, LPI Capital rose by 22 sen to RM14.80. Spritzer, Sunway Construction, and MNRB each recorded a gain of four sen, reaching RM2.70, RM5.83, and RM2.20, respectively.
The list of top decliners included Nestle, which fell 90 sen to RM114.80, Malaysian Pacific Industries, which decreased by 48 sen to RM31.02, Petronas Dagangan, down by 20 sen to RM19.84, and Westports, which saw an 11 sen reduction to RM5.55.
On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index fell by 22.98 points to 12,327.22, the FBM Top 100 Index declined by 28.38 points to 12,122.85, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased by 9.68 points to 12,121.20. Conversely, the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 16.10 points to 17,071.15, and the FBM ACE Index increased by 12.10 points to 4,940.85.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped by 59.97 points to 19,769.06, the Energy Index edged down by 0.31 points to 768.70, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell by 0.41 points to 173.47, and the Plantation Index weakened by 17.74 points to 8,286.07.