At the opening bell, it rose slightly higher over yesterday’s closing but slipped within minutes in response to the volatile trading session on Wall Street overnight.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened at 1,438.98 points, just 0.86 of a point higher than yesterday’s close of 1,438.12, but by 9.07am, it had dropped by 0.39 of a point to 1,437.73.

The market breadth was slightly negative with decliners outpacing gainers 126 to 117, while 181 counters were unchanged, 1,918 not traded and 79 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 150.56 million units worth RM46.50 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended lower yesterday, weighed down by losses in technology stocks as the major indices failed to sustain their momentum from last week’s rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) eased by 0.2%, S&P 500 Index slipped 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.72%.

Thong is cautiously optimistic about the performance of local stocks in the near term, given the improvement in regional sentiments while the valuation of the benchmark index remains attractive compared with those of regional peers.

“Nonetheless, investors will remain wary as volatility, both regionally and globally, remains high,” he said.

“We expect the index to trend within the 1,430-1,450 range today,” Thong told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Axiata Group rose three sen to RM2.77, Maybank and Dialog Group added two sen each to RM8.60 and RM2.15 respectively, while CIMB and Press Metal Aluminium were a sen higher at RM4.93 and RM4.70 respectively.

Public Bank eased a sen to RM4.43, while Petronas Chemicals and IHH were flat at RM9.20 and RM6.48, respectively.

Of the active stocks, both Green Packet and Dagang Nexchange gave up half-a-sen each to six sen and 79 sen respectively, Sapura Energy added a sen to 5.5 sen, while KNM and Yew Lee were flat at 12.5 sen and 25 sen, respectively.