Bursa pares early gains on Wall Street weakness

Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher on Wednesday but quickly lost ground after the market opened, mirroring Wall Street's decline overnight. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index fell 2.97 points to 1,697.57 from its previous close of 1,700.54. Wall Street's setback was attributed to an increase in crude oil prices and a rise in US bond yields, following fresh US attacks on Iran.

The index started the day 0.42 points higher than its previous opening at 1,700.96. Market breadth was negative, with more stocks falling than rising, as 230 stocks declined while only 122 managed to gain. A total of 285 stocks closed unchanged, while 2,135 were untraded and 17 suspended. The total turnover reached 199.75 million shares worth RM78.70 million.

Thong Pak Leng, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's equity research vice-president, suggested that the decline in Wall Street provided a buying opportunity, anticipating the index to stay within the 1,695-1,710 range. The Monetary Policy Committee of Bank Negara Malaysia, set to meet on Thursday, was expected to keep the overnight policy rate at 2.75% for the rest of 2026.

Among the major players, Maybank and Public Bank remained unchanged at RM10.56 and RM4.91, respectively. CIMB Group and Tenaga Nasional saw a dip of eight sen each to RM7.77 and RM13.68, while IHH Healthcare fell by two sen to RM8.13. The most active stocks, Focus Dynamics, Ni Hsin, and MAG Holdings remained unchanged, while HHRG dropped by one sen to 14.5 sen and GIIB Holdings fell by half a sen to 49 sen. The top gainers of the day included Fraser and Neave, Malaysian Pacific Industries, Hengyuan Refining, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, and Petronas Chemicals.

On the other hand, BLD Plantation, Hong Leong Bank, YTL Power, Petronas Dagangan, and United Malacca were among the top losers. The FBM Emas Index fell 29.81 points to 12,575.20, the FBM Top 100 Index declined by 24.97 points to 12,388.86, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased by 18.80 points to 12,373.18, the FBM Mid 70 Index slipped by 50.08 points to 17,866.41, and the FBM ACE Index dropped by 11.32 points to 5,175.16.

The Industrial Products and Services Index rose by 1.06 points to 185.65, while the Energy Index improved by 6.81 points to 796.65. However, the Financial Services Index fell by 71.88 points to 19,966.59, and the Plantation Index declined by 18.90 points to 9,296.38.