Bursa opens lower amid high oil prices, AI uncertainty

Bursa Malaysia's key index, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, began the day lower on Tuesday, dragged down by high oil prices and uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) developments. The benchmark index fell 6.74 points, or 0.39%, to 1,691.27 from Monday's close of 1,698.01. The index opened 3.10 points lower at 1,694.91.

Market breadth was nearly balanced, with 180 gainers to 179 losers. A total of 302 counters remained unchanged, while 2,182 were untraded and 13 were suspended. Trading volume totaled 268.38 million shares worth RM116.80 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd cited oil prices nearing US$107 per barrel and fading hopes for a West Asia breakthrough after an Iran-Gulf meeting on the Strait of Hormuz was abruptly postponed as contributing factors to the market sentiment. Moreover, Dario Amodei, CEO of US-based AI safety and research company Anthropic, cautioned that the AI sector must intentionally slow its pace of development to allow for adequate safety measures and oversight.

He urged the industry to slow down advanced model development, enhance safeguards such as independent evaluations, and reassess the investment cycle, particularly in sectors like chips, data centers, and infrastructure, which could delay returns and impact valuations.

Among the top gainers 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 three and a half sen to 44.5 sen. Top losers included Petronas Gas, which dropped by 26 sen to RM17.14, Petronas Chemicals which declined by 15 sen to RM5.12, Kuala Lumpur Kepong which fell by 10 sen to RM22.40, IOI Corporation which contracted by seven sen to RM4.86, and Kerjaya Prospek which reduced by five sen to RM3.43.