Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed on a mixed note, taking a breather from the recent rally as investors reassessed the not-so-rosy US economic data such as rising jobless claims and weaker-than-expected industrial output.
“Traders are concerned whether stock prices may have outpaced fundamentals. As such, while the Dow Jones Index Average lost 46 points, the Nasdaq ended almost 10 points higher as the US 10-year yield eased further to 4.441%.
“In addition, the Hang Seng Index tumbled by almost 250 points as traders were not encouraged by the recent highly anticipated US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting,” he said.
Back home, Thong reckons the local bourse to trend within a narrow range today with some upside bias, expecting the index to hover within the 1,460-1,470 range.
Another analyst said investors were also closely watching Malaysia’s third-quarter GDP to be announced today, with economists projecting 3.2%-3.3% growth versus 2.9% growth in the preceding quarter.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.33 points to 1,460.35 from Thursday’s closing of 1,464.68.
The index opened 3.09 points easier at 1,461.59.
The market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 170 to 107 while 237 counters were unchanged, 1,876 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 331.67 million units valued at RM65.39 million.
Among heavyweight counters, Public Bank and Axiata eased 2 sen to RM4.22 and RM2.43 respectively.
IOI and Tenaga Nasional lost 5 sen each to RM3.97 and RM9.94, while Maybank gained 1 sen to RM9.15.
Of the actives, Hong Seng slid 0.5 sen to 3.5 sen, Mercury Securities increased 0.5 sen to 34.5 sen and Unique Fire was 2.5 sen better at 26.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 25.87 points to 10,802.43, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 26.07 points to 10,464.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 28.51 points to 11,004.89.
The FBM ACE Index shrank 4.12 points to 5,114.69 and the FBM 70 Index reduced 13.99 points to 14,325.71.
Sector-wise, the financial services index slid 23.41 points to 16,410.03, the energy index edged down 3.3 points to 858.64, the plantation index was 5.75 points lower at 7,001.16, and the industrial products and services index shaved 0.02 of-a-point to 174.42.