KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened the week lower, led by a fall in bank stocks as speculation over a further interest rate cut by Bank Negara weighed on sentiment in the sector.
KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market rebounded on Wednesday as investors regained confidence following the government's announcement yesterday that businesses will remain open despite the state of emergency.
12:43 PM MYT KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI finished the early session at the 1,600-mark after seeing losses among financial counters and telcos.
The key index was down 2.19 points to 1,600.76 at midday as investors continued to take money out of bank stocks amid concerns over asset quality.
Maybank was down 12 sen to RM8.16 and CIMB dropped eight sen while Public Bank was unchanged at RM20.40 and Hong Leong Bank rose 20 sen to RM18.20.
Telcos meanwhile also weighed with Maxis shedding 22 sen to RM5.06 and Digi falling eight sen to RM4.08.
Petronas Chemicals meanwhile jumped 32 sen to RM7.37 amid rising crude oil prices, which are hovering near 11-month highs.
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia looked undecided in the early morning as it struggled in its bid to extend yesterday s rebound.
While opening in positive territory, the FBM KLCI quickly slipped 0.66 points to 1,646.84 after the first five minutes of trading.
The indecision tracks Wall Street s mixed performance overnight, with the Dow Jones and S&P500 rising slightly and the Nasdaq in the red.
Investor sentiment was rattled by US President Donald Trump s threat to veto a long-awaited Covid aid package, although observers remained somewhat confident that the bill would pass.
In Malaysia, traders are betting on the positive momentum to be sustained ahead of the long weekend.
9:18 AM MYT KUALA LUMPUR: A rebound was yet to be forthcoming as the FBM KLCI started on a weak note, en route to a fifth straight day of losses.
At 9.05am, the key index was down 2.86 points to 1,629.06 as the selling pressure over the discovery of a faster-spreading strain of coronavirus in the UK continued. Without any fresh catalyst, we expect the selling pressure to continue on the local front. However, the silver lining for today will be the commitment of a vaccine rollout plan by Malaysia s government, said Malacca Securities Research.
It added that vaccine-related counters may come under the spotlight while trading interest will be expected for gloves, construction, solar-related as well as technology stocks.