Bursa Malaysia opens lower as oil prices, US bond yields weigh on sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Bursa Malaysia's primary index started lower on Tuesday, following its peak on Monday, due to high crude oil prices and increased US bond yields. At 9:10 am, the FBM KLCI index tumbled 6.74 points, or 0.39%, to 1,691.27 from its previous close of 1,698.01. The index had initially opened 3.10 points lower at 1,694.91.

Market participation was nearly balanced, with more stocks gaining than losing by a margin of 180 to 179. Around 302 stocks remained unchanged, while 2,182 were not traded and 13 were suspended. The trading volume amounted to 268.38 million shares valued at RM116.80 million. The market tone was affected by oil prices approaching US$107 per barrel following the postponement of a scheduled West Asia meeting in the Strait of Hormuz.

Additionally, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI safety research company, cautioned that the AI sector must intentionally slow down its development to allow safety measures and regulations to keep up. Amodei urged the industry to reduce the speed of advanced model development and enhance safeguards, such as conducting independent evaluations.

He also cautioned about possible delays in returns and impacts on valuations due to a wider reassessment of investment areas, especially in chips, data centers, and infrastructure. Major companies like Malayan Banking and IHH remained unchanged at RM10.46 and RM7.76, respectively, while Public Bank fell by one sen to RM4.84, and CIMB and Tenaga Nasional dropped by two sen each to RM7.75 and RM13.62.

Among the strongest performers were Zetrix AI, which increased by two sen to 26.5 sen, MQ Technology, which rose by half a sen to six sen, and Butterfield, which fell by 3.5 sen to 44.5 sen. Top Glove declined by 2.5 sen to 80.5 sen, and Ni Hsin dropped by half a sen to 28.5 sen. Among the strongest gainers, Kelington and Westports rose by 18 sen each to RM8.80 and RM6.90, respectively.

Allianz increased by 12 sen to RM21, and Paragon Union and Frontken Corporation both gained 10 sen to RM1.50 and RM4.91, respectively. Among the weakest performers, Petronas Gas fell by 26 sen to RM17.14, Petronas Chemicals declined by 15 sen to RM5.12, Kuala Lumpur Kepong dropped by 10 sen to RM22.40, IOI Corporation fell by 7 sen to RM4.86, and Kerjaya Prospek decreased by 5 sen to RM3.43.

The FBM Mid 70 Index increased by 8.22 points to 17,698.31, the FBM ACE Index rose by 13.19 points to 5,228.82, the FBM Emas Index fell by 32.06 points to 12,527.85, the FBM Top 100 Index dropped by 35.29 points to 12,325.05, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased by 9.21 points to 12,403.56. The Industrial Products and Services Index decreased by 0.46 points to 188.74, and the Energy Index increased by 0.91 points to 815.83.

The Financial Services Index declined by 94.34 points to 19,697.23, and the Plantation Index decreased by 39.84 points to 9,496.45.